


The millionaire matchmaker

by thesmallfangirl



Series: the millionaires [1]
Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Geese, M/M, Prince Sebastian, servant kimi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2018-11-30 11:27:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 38,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11462634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesmallfangirl/pseuds/thesmallfangirl
Summary: Sebastian at the age of 28 has been instructed by his father to seek the services of a matchmaker in order to find himself a partner. Sebastian unfortunately seems to offend every person he meets. Minttu and Britta however hatch a plan to set this arrogant young prince up with the last person he might expect, will Sebastian be able to swallow his pride and follow his heart?also excuse my poor English skills sorry i suck at summaries





	1. the protection of a pond of poultry

**Author's Note:**

> a new fic guys as always please like and comment and excuse my poor english  
> Also anything written in ** is written to represent that conversation is in British sign language

Britta rather thought that she had made a mistake in taking on this client. She had yet to find a match for Sebastian Vettel, it had been 5 months now and her reputation was at stake. Every date that she had sent him on had turned out to be a royal disaster, as it turned out dating a prince was not the fairy tale that everyone thought it was.at this point Britta was considering just moving out of the country and changing her name, maybe she’d even shave her hair just to be sure.  
She sighed resting her head in her hands. Sebastian was just impossible to please she supposed. Minttu choose that moment to stick her head into her boss’s office “still worried about his highness?” she asked not unsympathetic.  
Britta nodded “he is quite simply updatable, he’s rude and arrogant and the media follow him like bloodhounds and as it turns out not many people are up for that”  
Minttu grinned “I might just have an idea” she said pushing a file over to Britta.  
Britta took the file skimming through it before giving her employee a dirty look “this is a file for his grounds keeper” she said  
Minttu nodded looking rather smug “yep” she responded popping the P.”  
Britta rolled her eyes “this. Is. a. service. for. millionaires” Britta stated through gritted teeth  
Minttu smiled in response “I am aware” answered the woman unabashedly.  
“I wasn’t aware that grounds keepers where so well paid” Britta countered  
Minttu snorted in amusement “oh come off it can’t hurt to give it a go, I wrote him a file and everything, and you might as well after all you’ve got nothing to lose”  
Britta sighed she supposed that her employee was right “fine” she said eventually “but if this goes wrong you are SO fired”  
***  
Kimi was knees deep in something that smelled like it had come straight out of a sewer, he had the feeling that someone was feeding the horses something that they shouldn’t be eating. He could hear Aimee; one of the cooks girls; nattering away to the horse in the next stall, he would bet all the little money that he had that it was her that was spoiling the animals.  
Kimi spent a lot of time in the stables it wasn’t technically part of his duties nor he suspected was it part of Aimee’s but he like the animals, he got along with them far better than their own keeper did and the animals let him care for them even when they were feeling especially cranky. This being in mind no one seemed to mind that he took time out of his official activates to care for the animals.  
Kimi mostly kept to himself, the position that he held in the household staff leant in itself to long periods of time spent alone, but he had a few friends. Stef and Hanna who worked in the kitchens had been there as long as he had and he liked them especially because stef and sometimes Hanna would slip him some food that was supposed to be served upon the royal table. Stef would shrug and state that Kimi was far more deserving of it anyway.  
Aimee had started a few months ago and had glued herself to Kimi’s side to begin with, she was young, 17, but Kimi thought that she looked closer to 12, with tufty red hair and sharp green eyes. Kimi had been irritated by her at first, particularly irritated by her endless inane chatter. She didn’t seem to mind that Kimi never spoke back.  
However upon her discovery of Kimi’s condition (to this date Kimi had no idea where she had gotten this information from) she had made herself far more amenable by talking to Kimi exclusively in sign language. Kimi would never admit to this but he was exceedingly grateful for this, at the very least it reduced the amount of noise the girl would make, which could only be counted as character improvement.  
Kimi finished grooming an especially difficult stallion that would let no one else touch it when Aimee poked her head over the next stall.  
** “I heard that Toto wanted to speak to you” **  
Toto along with his wife Susie where in charge of all the household staff, Toto mainly kept to the paper work side of it all preferring to let Susie take care of the people side of things. Kimi wondered then why he was being called to the office of Toto instead of Susie. He shrugged wondering what it was that he had done wrong this time, last time he had pruned the roses in such a way that displeased the prince and Toto had yelled about it for half an hour. The man had been so incensed, pacing up and down the office that he didn’t notice when Kimi, utterly bored with the conversation had fallen asleep in the oversized arm chair that Toto had ordered him into. Honestly Kimi couldn’t care less what Toto thought, or even less what the prince thought. Kimi had never even seen this prince; Kimi assumed that he was too aristocratic to associate himself with the likes of a grounds keeper who was rarely to be found without dirt coating at least half of him. He also suspected that Toto kept the Prince away under the; probably correct assumption; that Kimi would do something to offend him.  
Kimi grinned at his friend he had no intention of going to see Toto ** “I’ll be by the lake, doing….something”** he said  
Aimee rolled her eyes at him; she knew as well as Kimi did that there would be no way that Toto would be able to speak to Kimi today. Toto wouldn’t go within 50 feet of the lake he was mortally afraid of the geese that resided in it, and with good reason the last time that he had gotten within 40 feet of the lake, a goose protecting its young had flown straight at Toto’s head tearing out a chunk of his hair that had yet to grow back.  
The geese, much like every other animal on the estate seemed to tolerate Kimi with ease. Kimi picked up his bag and hurried toward the lake tossing a wave over his shoulder to the red-haired girl sat on a hay bail and made a bee line toward the geese hoping that he made it there before Toto located him. Kimi would happily spend the rest of his career stood in a lake if that meant he could avoid what promised to be an extremely dull conversation. With this thought in mind Kimi pricked his pace toward the protection provided by a pond full of poultry.  
***  
Toto was neck deep in paper work when he heard a knocking on his office door. He sighed lifting his eyes from an expenditure report for the palace; it amazed him daily that Sebastian could spend so much money over such a short period. Toto was seriously considering giving the man some kind of budget though he doubted that such a thing would go down to well with the spoilt young man.  
“Come in” he called placing the report back into a draw in his desk with a sinking feeling.  
He looked up to see the form of his wife leant against the door frame she was dressed in a white knee length dress with blue roses on it and as always Toto thought she looked completely radiant. She was smiling slightly at him, in such a way that Toto knew she was about to present him with news that she thought was deeply amusing.  
“Hello my dear” he said echoing his wife’s smile “do what do I owe this pleasure”  
His wife made her way across the room seating herself on the corner of the desk looking back at her husband.  
“Well” she said her smile widening “Minttu virtannen is here to see you”  
Tot gave her a confused look “that matchmaker” he stated though it sounded more like a question “can’t imagen what she’s want with me” he said taking his wife’s hand “I’m already happily taken”  
Susie rolled her eyes though she was smiling fondly at Toto “she’s not here about you, you idiot she’s here about his royal highness”  
Toto rose an eyebrow “still trying to find a match for him is she, I doubt she’ll have much luck, Sebastian has grown quite impossible as of late.”  
Susie grinned “oh you’re going to love this” Toto could tell she was on the verge of telling him everything barely holding herself back “oh it is the funniest thing toto you will not beleive it" she pursed her lips together holding in a laugh “but no I will let her explain, shall I let her in?" asked Susie sliding of the desk.  
Toto nodded reluctantly releasing the hand of his wife “very well let her in” he said “have you seen Kimi?” he asked almost as an afterthought  
Susies smile got even wider and a little laugh escaped her “in the stables I think” she left the room in a dash, leaving Toto listen to her peals of laughter as she fled back down the corridor in search of Minttu.  
***  
Toto leaned back in his chair almost pale with shock “well” he said “that’s a terrible idea if I ever heard one, what possessed you to think of something like that. Now I’m going to let you leave his office under the assumption that you hit your head really hard, and we will never speak of such a thing again.”  
To Toto's surprise the girl sat in front of him made no move to leave the room instead smiling a little at his in such a way that suggested she knew more about this; and perhaps everything; than Toto did.  
This girl shook her head “I disagree, I think that this an excellent idea” she said smiling  
Of course she did Toto thought to himself.  
Toto took a deep breath if nothing else it would be amusing and if the girl wanted to ruin her business then that was her prerogative. “Fine” said Toto with a look of amusement “though I would suggest not telling His Royal Highness what it is you are planning, setting his arrogance up with a servant is hardly going to go down well”  
The girl laughed and muttered something to herself in a language that Toto didn’t speak.  
“I will however” Toto continued “ok this with Kimi,” he shuddered “he’ll set those blasted geese on me if I do something he doesn’t like”  
Minttu stood smoothing down her skin tight red dress with a smile “so we are in agreement, this is a good idea”  
Toto raised an eyebrow “well I’m not sure about that but yes I will permit you to arrange this all as you see fit”  
The girl slipped out of the room and Toto called his assistant to him “Nico” he called hoping that he boy was at his station and not busy making moon eyes at the footman, Lewis, Toto thought his name was.  
Nico ran into the room with his hair mussed in such a way that let Toto know exactly what he had spent most of the morning doing.  
“Yes” asked the boy  
“Find Kimi for me would you”  
Nico nodded and turned to leave the room  
“and” Toto called “do try not to snog Lewis on your way out, try a bedroom next time instead of a broom closet” he said with an amused glance at the piece of mop that had attached itself to Nico’s usually perfect hair.  
Nico blushed furiously at this and fled the room in embarrassment in search of the ever elusive Kimi.  
Toto chuckled at leaned back against this high backed chair. Well, he thought to himself this would be extremely amusing if nothing else, he hoped that Sebastian might learn something from it and that no one would get hurt. He tried not to take it as a bad omen when a rather large goose flew past his window shooting him a dirty look as it did so.


	2. nudity and rum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kimi escapes the great house with the hopes of finding solitude in a pond of geese, only to be interupted by the most unlikely of people

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i can't believe how many of you liked and commented on the last chapter thank you all so much. i hope you enjoy this chapter just as much xx

As it turned out “finding Kimi” was rather more difficult than it sounded ,Nico; who much like his boss; was also afraid of the geese, and upon discovering that Kimi was in a pond full of the animals had refused to pass on Toto’s message.   
So as such all of the attempts by Nico, to pass on Toto’s message where delivered solely by Nico screaming over serval hundreds of meters of farmland. Indeed Nico had no idea whether or not Kimi had heard anything that he had said, or had heard the whole thing and was determined to ignore any attempts to retrieve him from the lake. Nico having decided within the first week at the estate that Kimi was a grumpy and extremely aloof man had decided to believe the latter.  
Kimi had indeed heard every word of Nico’s screeching and as suspected had decided it was in his interests to ignore it, besides he found Nico very irritating. He talked too much. He talked far too much.   
Nico after half an hour of yelling across a field at a stubborn groundkeeper had decided that his time was better spent elsewhere, mainly his time would be better spent in a broom closet with Lewis Hamilton snogging him senseless.   
He made his way back up toward the house, telling Toto where he had found Kimi and that he had passed on Toto’s message to him. Toto for his part; when Nico had returned to the house looking put out and grumbling about rude Finns; had found the whole thing rather amusing. He was after all a patient man and he reasoned Kimi couldn’t very well spend the rest of his life in that lake; he’d have to come out for food at the very least.  
Nico did not however tell his boss that Kimi was still stood in the middle of the lake, busy ignoring him and that he showed no signs of doing anything else for at least the rest of the day.  
Before Toto figured this out Nico had darted off in search of a broom closet with a sturdy lock.  
***

Kimi was stood in the pond pulling out some of the more stubborn weeds; well, if he was going to spend his day in a lake let it not be said that it was a day wasted; Toto’s assailant was sat on his feet looking rather pleased with himself. When, quite without warning a young man emerged from the trees stark naked and plunged feet first into the pond whooping with glee as he did so, Kimi raised an eyebrow and wondered which member of the kitchens (the only people who had access to any alcohol) had decided that Tuesday was the new Friday.  
The geese scattered with angry cries, leaving Kimi to watch the only protect he had against a conversation with Toto disappear into the horizon. He hoped that Toto’s fear of the geese would override his desire to speak to him. Perhaps with some good luck Toto may be more intimidated by the fact that he could NOT see the geese, assuming perhaps that they had organized some kind of assault and where hiding in the reeds ready to relive him of the burden his remaining hair.  
The pond-jumping young man hadn’t seemed to have noticed Kimi at all; he was floating on his back looking up at the sky, singing to himself a rather butchered version of the English national anthem. Kimi wondered if he should go and drag the young man out of the lake before he inevitably drowned himself. But that, Kimi reasoned to himself, may require conversation, so instead he decided to settle himself upon the banks of the lake. His position was almost in whole hidden by the plants in the shallows of the water bed, a position from which Kimi would be able to observe the young man without fear of being seen in return.  
Kimi chuckled to himself, old pervert, he thought, watching naked young men while they swim. It was indeed one of the more odd things he had spent an afternoon doing, even if it was for the reason of said young man’s well-being.  
Kimi leant back against the grass peering through the weeds toward the young man, who Kimi suspected may not have been as drunk as he had originally appeared. He was still floating on his back, and Kimi reasoned if he was that drunk he wouldn’t have been able to hold such a position for any reasonable length of time and he’d have probably swallowed half of the lake by now for good measure.  
Kimi was about to get up to leave; and to seek another animal that Toto was afraid of for protection; seeing as the young man had scared away his reason to be here with his hooting and hollering, when he heard something that sounded distinctly like muffled tears. Never mind the young man’s nakedness now Kimi really felt like he was intruding on a deeply private moment. He glanced back again through the weeds, hunched over in the shallow waters on the other side of the lake was the young man. He had his legs drawn up to his chin his head was resting on them, he was facing sideways in the water, gazing away from Kimi and back towards the great house. Damp blonde-brown hair clung to his forehead and he looked to the entire world like the most miserable man that Kimi had ever seen. Kimi wondered what ever could have happened to make such a beautiful young man so completely and desperately unhappy.   
Kimi felt as if he could no longer in good conscience keep sitting there, intruding in what clearly was not meant to be seen. He drew himself up from the water making scarcely a sound as he did so, long limbs moving with silence and grace.  
He pulled a few of the weeds from his waterproofs before making his way up the bank hoping that the young man curled up in the lake hadn’t seen him.

***  
Sebastian vettel was feeling sorry for himself. So sorry for himself that he had in fact how consumed a rather large bottle of rum. However the consumption of such a copious amount of rum, while it hadn’t quite gotten rid of the crushing weight on his chest, it had given him the desire to plunge himself feet first into the lake.  
Well, he thought to himself, I am a prince after all I should be able to indulge myself in at least this. The palace was rather empty today, his brother and his parents having taken a great deal of the household and kitchen staff with them on their expedition to box hill. This was incidentally the reason why Sebastian had been able to steal a bottle of rum without anyone querying it or at least worrying that he may be developing an alcohol problem. This may not have been so far from the truth, Sebastian conceded with a degree of shame, as he began to realize that he had not, as he had previously assumed, consumed one bottle of Rum but two.  
The emptiness of the house and grounds proved to further act in Sebastian’s favour, his bottle of rum, correction BOTTLES of rum, where also proving rather persuasive in their reasoning that princes did not need to wear clothing in their own homes.  
By the time that Sebastian had reached the main hall he was wearing nothing but his boxers and his socks, by this time he had consumed so much of his favourite spirit that he did not notice Susie stood at the top of the stairs looking like she might pass out from the shock of seeing a prince in nought but his pants.  
Sebastian flung open the heavy wooden doors with an air of triumph, and tossing his offending socks and boxers over his shoulders he took off running toward the lake laughing and whooping as he did so.   
Susie wolff however remained rooted to the spot wondering if she had ever seen anything quite as odd in her entire life. She turned and headed toward her husband office wondering if he might be able to give her any advice as to how to proceed with such a unique set of events because she was quite at a loss.  
***  
Toto’s work, for the second time that day, was interrupted by the sight of his wife in the door way, except this time she looked less amused and more concerned. Toto rose from his chair taking his wife’s hand in his and drawing her into one of the seats near the window. Seats he reserved for his less formal meetings, or at least the meetings that did not involve yelling at someone.  
“My dear” he asked with concern “whatever has happened”  
Susie opened and closed her moth several times; she was at a loss of how exactly to explain what had happened. “I found the prince rather…. Um well… rather inebriated” she said. Toto didn’t stop her sensing that there was more to this. “Well extremely inebriated to be quite honest with you, he um” she paused again “relieved himself of all of his clothes, and um well I do believe he plans to take a swim. Naked. On a royal estate”  
Toto looked at her for several long moments before bursting into uncontrollable laughter; Susie indulged his laughter for several moments more before hitting him with one of the pillows on her chair.  
“Really Toto you should show more composure, or at least concern. What if he drowns himself in that lake, what then, huh?” she hit him again for good measure not quite believing that he understood the gravity of the situation, drunk men and ponds full of geese did not sound like a happy marriage.  
Toto eventually managed to get his laughter under control, after several long moment of being glared at by a rather irate Susie, final managing to choke out between persistent giggles (really a man of Toto’s age should not be giggling, thought Susie) “Kimi….is… at….the….lake”  
Susie gave Toto a long look before she herself dissolved into giggles of her own clutching her stomach at the rather hilarious thought of Kimi and Sebastian’s first meeting to involve, nudity, rum and geese.  
***  
Sebastian froze, he had up until that moment thought himself alone in his drunken misery, but no, it appeared that in this too he must have a witness.  
He heard from across the lake the shifting of water as someone hauled themselves from the reeds. The man in question kept his back to Sebastian, so that he could not see his face, though Sebastian suspected it was one of the staff. Lucky for him, had Seb seen the man’s face he would have been able to identify the man he now obviously needed to fire.  
The man was board shouldered with close cropped blonde hair; he was dressed in green overalls that gave Sebastian the suspicion that he was probably one of the men involved in the upkeep of the estate.  
The man slunk away with an easy gait not once glancing back over his shoulder; clearly he was sure that he hadn’t been seen. For some strange reason Sebastian willed the man to look back over his shoulder and to see Sebastian gazing back at him now fully aware of his presence, he wondered what this groundskeeper must think of him. That was a new sensation, he thought to himself, caring what someone such as that thought of him.  
The man disappeared over the brow of the hill heading in the direction of the stables; maybe he worked in there instead, thought Sebastian, though he was the kind of man who looked rather as if he would be at ease anywhere he liked.  
Sebastian thought that he would feel far angrier at the thought of being observed in such a state by a man he scarcely knew, a man; he however indirectly; employed, but for once he wasn’t sure that he cared, he was for once grateful that someone had borne witness to the misery that settled itself over every inch of Sebastian. He was grateful that that for once someone had been able to peer beneath the mask he wore.


	3. their life was a lonely one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kimi chockes and a drunk seb is found by his brother

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm off on holiday for a few days so i wont be update for a while see you when i'm back xx

Toto had managed to intercept Kimi somewhere in between the lake and the stables, as it turned out Toto Wolff could move much quicker than Kimi had thought. Kimi wondered if it would really be considered all that rude if he bolted toward the stables and the horse that tried to kill Toto every time he looked at it, animals really did not like Toto.  
Toto answered that question for him “Kimi Raikkonen if you go into that stable you may as well consider yourself fired”  
Kimi sighed considering for a moment how much he really valued his employment, no other place would allow him to get by with so little regular conversation, he thought to himself, so with a long suffering sigh he gestured toward the great house stating in his own silent way that he would hear Toto out.  
Toto lead the way back up the gravel path looking behind him every now and again to make sure that Kimi was in fact following him and had not sneaked of when Toto’s back was turned.  
Toto pulled open the large wooden doors, indicating the Kimi should go ahead of him into the house, and with one reluctant glance back toward the lake Kimi did so. Kimi wondered what Toto could want from him, if he was going to fire him he surely would have done so before they reached the house, he probably was going to yell about the roses again assumed Kimi.  
Toto led him into the office and Kimi took a seat in large arm chair that he always sat in whenever Toto yelled at him, in fact it was becoming a bit of a tradition. Toto took his seat behind the large wooden desk, which was unusual; when he was angry he usually paced around the room in order to prevent himself from banging his hand on the desk in frustration. (He had broken his hand twice from doing just that).  
In fact Toto looked rather uncomfortable, he was looking at the door almost as much as Kimi usually did, and Kimi thought that Toto was, much like he was, wondering if it was too late to bolt out of the door. Toto wrung his hands again clearing his throat looking as if he’d rather be eating fire ants than having this conversation. Kimi simply raised an eyebrow at him.  
“This isn’t exactly a usual conversation” Toto pointed out, Kimi wondered if he was speaking to himself or to Kimi.  
Kimi as usual did not say anything, instead raising one shoulder to shrug at his boss; maybe Toto would just let him go instead of having what was obviously an awkward conversation with him.  
“A matchmaker came today” said Toto  
Kimi shifted his gaze from Toto to the window coming to the conclusion that there was no way this conversation had anything to do with him, or would interest him at all.  
“It’s about the prince” continued Toto  
Kimi was right this had absolutely nothing to do with him at all, why on earth had he been called in here; though he did vaguely wonder which prince was in question here. He suspected that it might be in fact the one that he had seen naked in the pond not 30 minutes prior. The younger prince, Valtteri, had no problems making friends or romantic attachments, he acquitted himself well and was liked almost everywhere he went. The elder was quite a different story, he seemed to take delight in offending every person that he came into contact with, especially female suitors, Sebastian Vettel loved offending female suitors.  
Toto was looking at Kimi expectantly almost as if he was hoping that Kimi would put two and two together so he wouldn’t have to explain this to him. Kimi wasn’t going to let him get of that easily besides he had absolutely no idea what was going on.  
“The matchmaker” Toto paused again, apparently he was having more problems talking than Kimi did these days “the matchmaker would like to match make you”  
Kimi, in lieu of a shocked answer raised two eyebrows instead of the customary one, a confused expression asking Toto why.  
Toto realising that he may have to give more explanation than this continued “she would like to match make you to the prince”  
Kimi began to choke, so much that Toto jumped up from the chair behind the desk, rushing over to Kimi to hit him soundly on his back. Red faced and tears running down his checks from lack of oxygen, Kimi raised his face to look Toto in the eye, looking like he’d like to smack his boss. Toto, to his credit at least had the grace to look guilty at nearly killing Kimi.  
Kimi settled back into the chair rubbing his sore throat, the coughing had aggravated his already delicate muscles. They were twitching beneath his hand, making the nagging pain blaze again; he nodded in thanks when Toto passed him a glass of water. The water did little to help the pain, Kimi rubbed at the base of his sore his neck and wondered if Toto would just let him go now.  
“I take that, that was a no” said Toto leaning back against the desk  
Kimi shot him a look at said in no uncertain terms, you think?  
Without being given leave Kimi got up from the high backed chair shooting Toto a dirty look as he exited the room.  
Toto sighed he dreaded telling Minttu this, he rather suspected that she was a woman that did whatever the hell she pleased and he doubted that she would be put off by Kimi’s refusal. Toto assumed that she would go right ahead with whatever it was that she had planned with or without Kimi’s approval. And when Kimi found out about it he would blame Toto and then, he shuddered, and then he’d set his geese of Toto. Maybe, Toto thought to himself it was time to retire, he pulled his phone from his pocket doing a quick google of which countries where goose free.  
He looked down at his watch Minttu was due back in an hour; Toto was expected to give her an answer then. He didn’t think that Susie would have been able to pack her things by then. Toto winced resigning himself to another awkward conversation.  
***  
Sebastian was sat in the lake feeling rather more sober now, and he was beginning to wonder how on earth he would be able to sneak back into the house without anyone seeing him. It had been a wonder that no one had seen him before someone would without doubt see him this time and if there was one thing that the people in your employ should not see it was your balls.  
Sebastian pulled himself out of the water straightening his back that had stiffened as he had sat hunched over. As he did so the bushes behind him sounded as if they had parted, Sebastian spun around wondering if the groundskeeper from earlier had returned.  
He was instead faced with his brother who had flung one hand over his eyes to hide the sight that faced him.  
“Fucking hell Sebastian, what is going on, why are not wearing any pants?” his brothers voice with high pitched with shock and he had turned bright red with indignation.  
Sebastian was covering himself with one hand, the other wrapped around his body in a vain attempt to hide the shivers that now wracked his body. “In all fairness” he said “when I came out here I was incredibly drunk”  
“Not again” Valtteri muttered in exasperation  
Sebastian nodded guiltily even though his brother, with his hand over his eyes, could not see. Valtteri shrugged off his jacket handing it to his brother with one hand the other still firmly wrapped around his eyes.  
“Here” he said “wrap this around your waist, your balls and shrivelled dick is a sight that no one needs to see”  
Sebastian wrapped the large jacket around his waist, valtteri was bulkier than him despite being several years younger, and the jacket went easily around him hiding both of his ends.  
Valtteri laughed a little at the ridiculousness of the situation. “How much did you have to drink this time?” he asked his brother as he led him away from the lake and back towards the house.  
“Two bottles of rum” answered Sebastian sounding rather sheepish.  
Valtteri sighed “you can’t keep doing this you know, you can’t keep this up” he wrapped one arm around Sebastian who was shivering rather violently now. “Why don’t you just tell them I really don’t think they’d mind as much as you think they would.”  
Seb shrugged “perhaps not, but what about everyone else, we are not people that can make choices freely, everyone watches us Val, don’t you know that by now, everyone will be watching us, watching me. They’ll judge me unfit, then how will I rule then” he sighed “maybe I should abdicate, you have the throne for all its worth, I’ll disappear somewhere no one will ever be able to find me again. I’ll go to Finland; I’ve always wanted to go to Finland”  
Valtteri took of his sweater handing this too to his brother; Sebastian took it with a smile at valtteri. “Sebastian” he said in his quite voice “you have to stop making decisions based on what other people will think, its hurting you too much, I can see how miserable you are, how you drive people away” he held up a hand to dispel his brothers protests “I’m not stupid Sebastian I have eyes, I can see that you are unhappy, you drink far too much and I can’t remember the last time you were happy, really happy not tipsy. Maybe you should talk to that matchmaker, have her set you up with someone you’d actually like to be set up with.” Valterri smiled at his brother “and don’t worry about mom and dad I’m fairly certain that they already know”  
Sebastian raised a speculative eyebrow “I don’t think so”  
Valtteri rolled his eyes “why do you think they made gay marriage legal when you came of age idiot”  
Sebastian smiled at his brother grateful for his comfort even if he didn’t fully believe it. Valtteri herded him inside and up to Sebastian’s room settling him down on the corner of the bed and handing him some water.  
“Drink this” he said “all of it, then get some rest. I’m going to go speak to the household staff about putting the supply of rum, well whatever it is we still have left, under lock and key”  
Sebastian downed the water and collapsed back on the bed with a groan “maybe, that is not such a bad idea”  
Valterri chuckled “sleep well seb”  
He left the room closing the door behind him. He was worried about his brother, Sebastian frustrated a lot of people valtteri knew this, but he cared too much about what people thought of him. Sebastian was always concerned about doing something wrong, he was too aware of people’s eyes on him and it was driving him mad.  
He left the house and headed toward the stables settling on a patch of grass in the field where his mare was kept, she approached him taking the apple out of his pocket that he’d brought for her with a whinny before trotting away.  
He glanced toward the stables; the sun beating down on his back, sat outside the stable was a red haired girl she was very pretty Val thought to himself. She was swinging her legs backward and forward and valtteri was considering going to talk to her when she was joined by a blond haired man. The red head put her arm around the blond man, Val assumed that they must be together and put any thoughts of speaking to the girl out of his head.  
The girl was rubbing the man’s back and every now and again her hands would dart around, the mans would too, Val assumed they were signing at each other and he wondered why. They looked like they were household staff, and as far as he knew none of the staff where deaf. Valtteri glanced away looking back wards his mare that was busy plucking the leave of a nearby bush. He sighed he would never admit it to Sebastian, but he was right their life was a lonely one.


	4. set up with a servant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> seb goes to see minttu and toto googles geese

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last chapter before my holiday promise

When Minttu sashayed into the room Toto was seriously contemplating throwing himself out of the window, there was no way out of this that would in any way shape or form end well for him.   
Minttu let herself in without so much as a knock on the door, not that Toto was surprised she didn’t look like the type of woman that ever asked for permission to do anything.  
She made her way across the room settling herself on the arm of the high-backed chair that Kimi had been sat in earlier that day. She crossed her long legs over each other her red skirt and white blouse clashing horribly with the faded green chair.  
“Well” she said “has your groundskeeper made his mind up?”  
Toto scowled not sure that he appreciated having a conversation about Kimi without the man being in attendance. Not of course that the man would speak up in defence of himself, Toto knew that Kimi kept all conversation to an absolute minimum, though he knew not why. Kimi had never elected to tell him and Toto had never asked, he was not one for invading his employee’s privacy.  
“He’s not interested” Toto said firmly.  
Minttu cocked her head at this “really” she said flatly in such a tone that Toto knew that any argument that he gave to stop this whole thing would be completely ignored by her. “Well, I guess my trip here has been wasted”  
“Indeed” Toto said giving her his best, do not disobey me glare. Minttu smiled clearly it had no effect on her.  
She got up from the chair making her way over to the door; she glanced back across her shoulder to Toto who was wringing his hands.  
“But what if they just happened to meet, we’d have had no part in it, and certainly you would not have” she smiled and darted out of the room.  
Toto just sighed and resigned himself to being eaten alive by angry geese.  
***

Sebastian pulled out his phone doing a quick google of where Britta’s office was, he tapped the directions into the GPS system mounted on his dashboard and started the Ferrari. It woke with a soft growl and Sebastian allowed himself a small smile, there were, he thought, a few advantages to the whole prince debacle.  
He pulled out of the drive with his brothers words ringing in his ears, Valtteri had been right he couldn’t keep this up, it was making him utterly miserable. He wondered if Valtteri could be correct, surely his parents would mind that their eldest son liked men, I mean there was no way he’d be able to produce a legitimate heir this way. Though, he himself would not mind at all if his successor was his brother and not his child, he rather thought that valtteri would make the better king out of the two of them anyway.  
Sebastian put his foot more firmly onto the accelerator yelling in joy as the car responded quickly, allowing him to creep well over the speed limit in a matter of seconds, at this rate he’d make it to Britta’s office in less than 20 minutes instead of the predicted hour. Sebastian grinned there was nothing that he enjoyed more than going quickly.  
His thoughts once again strayed to the man who had seen him naked in the family pond; he wondered why he had been watching him, and what must have gone through his head as he did so. The man must know that he was the future king, Sebastian gave a grim smile, that was hardly the impression that he wanted to give to his people, heck the press would have an absolute field day if they saw (or heard) anything about it. Sebastian grimaced; he really hoped that the man would keep his mouth shut. He thought that perhaps he should be trying to find this man so that he could fire him, though, that would maybe cause more problems than it would solve. Sebastian would just have to hope that by some strange twist of fate that the groundskeeper had not recognized him without his finery, well it had happened before.  
He pulled up to the set of offices that held Britta’s office and turned off the car. There where apparently very few people that where around at this time on a Wednesday morning, he looked at his watch, it was only 5.50 am so he supposed that he shouldn’t have been too surprised. Sebastian could only hope that Britta was a morning person, he didn’t fancy having to come back another day where more people might be in the office. One of them may recognise him as the crown prince and tattle to the media, he could see it now, “crown prince seeks matchmaking service…is he really that dislikeable”.  
Sebastian slammed the car door shut and walked inside the building, the swing door was unlocked which gave him hope that the building would too be occupied: by Britta with any luck: or at least her assistant Minttu. Sebastian hoped that it was Britta; Minttu was more than a little intimidating.  
He eventually found the set of offices that were labelled “Britta’s millionaire matchmaking service”. He tried the door with a soft push, it opened with little resistance he smiled, someone at least had to be here.  
He looked around the office space, there were a few desks scattered about here and there, but generally the main office space was fairly empty indicating that very few people worked here. Sebastian suspected that was to keep the eventuality that someone might tell the press about clients as low as possible.  
At the back of the room where two offices one labelled “Britta, manager” and the other “Minttu, assistant” he wondered how an assistant had managed to swing having her own office. He kept across the room to see if the lights where on in either of the two offices, such that might indicate either of the women were in attendance. He headed over to Britta’s office first as he was silently hoping that it would be her that was in and not Minttu. He pressed his face against the door trying to see through its small crack if the light was on the in the room.   
As far as he could see he was out of luck, the room looked as dark as the rest of the office, Sebastian sighed and went over to the second door, he hoped that there was someone was here and that the office had not been left open as an accident, that would seem like rather lax security especially considering he had been allowed to enter the building without passing any security or even passing a receptionist.  
He pressed his face against the door in the same way as he had done to the one prior. Through the crack in this door he could however, see a small sliver of light that snaked out from underneath the door and from the cracks around it lighting up the carpet closest to it.  
Sebastian sighed it would be just he luck that the one that he was hoping wasn’t here was the one that was, well Sebastian, he thought to himself, time to put your big girl pants on and go speak to the scary Finnish lady.  
He wondered if he should knock first or not, in the end he decided not to, instead pushing the door open hesitantly. He stepped into the room; it was a small office was a large window that stretched almost the complete expanse of it. Next to said window and facing away from him was the woman (well one of the women) that he had come here to see. She was leaning out of the window a coffee cup balanced on the ledge beside here, smoking a cigarette. She didn’t turn around she either hadn’t heard him come in or didn’t care Sebastian cleared his throat a little hoping to draw her attention to him without having to be too rude.  
She woman sighed “yes, yes, yes” she said “I heard you come in, just have a seat, I need to finish this cigarette”  
“While hanging halfway out of a window” asked Sebastian  
The woman barked out a laugh “well yeah” she responded “we’re not supposed to smoke in the offices, but I can’t be fucked to go stand outside in the cold to do so. Plus I’m supposed to be quitting and if Britta smells cigs on me she’ll hit me”  
Sebastian let Minttu finish her cigarette in peace while he picked at a stray piece of fabric that was coming loose from his jeans. When Minttu had finished she flicked the butt out of the window and down the remains of her black coffee in one, then and only then did she turn to face Sebastian.  
For 6am the woman looked remarkable well put together, her hair was slicked back and her makeup, almost perfect. She gave Sebastian a small smile as she settled down into the chair opposite him.  
“So” she said “what brings you here to see me little prince”  
Sebastian wasn’t all that sure that he like the tone the woman seemed to have taken with him, he suspected that she might be teasing him, at the very least he thought she talked down to him in a way that was quite simply not done. He did not have however the courage to correct this woman she seemed rather formidable, and was Sebastian was surprised at least 3 inches taller than him.  
“I wanted” Sebastian said in a small voice still playing with the stray bit of sting in such a way that it would seem likely that he could, during this meeting, completely pick his jeans apart. “Well I wanted” he tried again seemingly to be unable to find the words.  
Minttu smiled at him kindly and said in what Sebastian thought was uncharacteristically soft voice “I know”  
“You know?” asked Sebastian wondering what it was she knew  
“I know you like men” she said without missing a beat, almost as if she couldn’t give two shits what it was he liked, well with the amount of money his parents where giving the service Sebastian suspected she could feign disinterest in practically anything.  
Sebastian still found himself spluttering a little at it “you know, how, how do you know?”  
Minttu raised one elegant shoulder in a small shrug twirling her dark hair around her fingers. “Of course, it was obvious really. I mean it was obvious that you where sabotaging those dates, once I came to that conclusion it was only a matter of putting two and two together.”  
Sebastian was looking at her with a pale shocked expression.  
Minttu rolled her eyes it was becoming apparent to her that she would have to carry the weight of the conversation. “I assume” she said “ that you were here to tell me as such and to request that we cease to set you up with women that you have absolutely no interest in being set up with.”  
Sebastian nodded mutely wondering how on earth this woman, that had had until today only seen across a room, put all of this together.  
She smiled at him again, Sebastian thought that he might have misjudged her; she seemed upon closer inspection really quite kind, if a little sharp.  
“Ok” she said “what where you expecting it to be a problem?”  
Sebastian nodded.  
Minttu raised her manicured eyebrows at him before making her way over to one of the filing cabernets in the corner of the room. She began to fish around in it looking for Kimi’s file, or rather the one she had edited for the prince.   
She had left out the part about him being the groundskeeper on the princes own estate, she suspected that this may not go down to well, at the start anyway. She sensed a certain arrogance about the prince and assumed that he would be rather put out that a millionaire matchmaking service had set him up with someone who most months ended up scraping the barrel.  
She found the file and handed it over to the prince who was sat looking rather nervously around the room. “Here” she said “I found this man earlier while I only had my suspicions to go by”  
Sebastian raised his eyebrows; damn she must be really good at her job. Sebastian read through the file that had been composed by Minttu, the man seemed rather attractive, blond, strong looking, with an interesting sounding name. Kimi Raikkonen. Sebastian liked the sound of that, it also said he was Finnish, Sebastian chuckled a little at that hadn’t he been saying just a few hours prior that he would like to go to Finland.  
It said nothing in his file about any sort of occupation, that didn’t concern Sebastian however; he simply assumed that the man must be some kind of heir to his parent’s estate. The information about the man was fairly sparse; Sebastian did not mind however, he supposed it was better to get to know someone in person as opposed to from a piece of paper.  
He smiled at Minttu “I would like to meet him, when would I be able to”  
Minttu smiled in response “I’ll text the details to you as soon as I manage to set something up”  
Sebastian smiled “thank you”   
He exited her office the file still clasped him his hand. Minttu wondered a little at the meeting, the prince was not nearly as arrogant or self-assured as he had seemed to be, he wondered how much of what he portrayed was a carefully constructed act.  
She was surprised to find herself rather in pity of the young man she hoped however that he would be able to swallow his pride when he realised he’d been set up with a servant.


	5. the potted plant perished

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> minttu makes some leaps in her plans to set up kimi and seb

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm back guys hope you enjoy this chapter as always excuse my poor english and comments and kudos are always so appriciated

The king and queen had begun preparations for their annual ball and the whole castle was immersed in an absolute frenzy of anxious activity as everyone rushed about to get everything in order. Norbert and Heike Vettel had expensive and extravagant taste much like their oldest son who seemed to be enjoying himself immensely, getting involved in as much of the preparation as he could. Valtteri however was trying to stay out of the whole thing as much was physically possible. He was currently taking up residence in one of the more dusty corridors of the servant’s floor. He was dressed in some of his older clothes, things that he had owned for years now, comfortable faded garment that had more than their fair share of holes.  
He was thumbing through one of the old books that he had found in his brother’s room, it was battered and well read, Valtteri wondered why, until this day he had hardly thought his brother a pride and prejudice sort of man.  
He was jolted out of his reverie a moment later by a shocked cry. He looked up to be met by the face of the red haired girl that he had seen sat outside of the stables a few days ago. She was pale with shock, a bundle of laundry clasped in her hands and her mouth hanging open in a rather comical manner.  
“hello” he said hoping he sounded cheerful and not intimidating.  
The girl recovering a little gave him a dirty look “just what on earth do you think that you’re doing up here” she said tagging on a “your majesty” almost as an afterthought.  
Valtteri smiled at her “I wanted some peace and quiet, this whole thing is driving me crazy”  
The girl sighed and collapsed next to him on the dusty wooden floor. She had no affected airs and graces and it refreshed Valtteri that she talked to him as if he were a real person, she didn’t pander to him and he found that he liked it rather well.  
“Yeah” she said “you and me both, you have no idea how many time I have run up and down the grand staircase this afternoon my knees are near on ready to drop off.”  
Valtteri smiled kindly at her, he had no idea just how had this part of the season was on the servants. He hoped that next year he might be able to persuade his family to go a bit easier on the whole affair or at least to employ a few extra staff for the season to ease the load on the servants that lived in the house the whole year round.  
“I take it your up here to hide too?” he asked the girl  
The girl laughed “now I doubt that answering that question would do any good for my employment status now would it” she smiled at him.  
Valtteri laughed he supposed that she was right. “You find me at a disadvantage” he said “you know my name but I do not know yours”  
The red haired girl smiled at him “not many of your kind ask that kind of question” she said “they don’t care to know”  
Valtteri frowned “well what do they call you”  
She smiled “usually, hey you or hey girl any variations on the above will often do for them”  
Valtteri laughed, she was funny this girl. She was extremely good looking too with wavy hair, a beautiful smile and a body that was rounded in all the right places.  
“But what is your name, really” he asked  
“My names Aimee, I work in the kitchens.” She said  
Valtteri smiled holding out his hand to her she took it, her calloused hand fitting in to his larger smoother one “Valtteri, it’s nice to meet you”  
“Likewise” she rose from the dusty floor in one graceful move “well, you can sit here all day if you like to but some of don’t have that luxury, I have things to do” she looked down at the book that was resting on the floor beside Valtteri’s legs. She grinned a little when she read the title “enjoy your book” she laughed positively skipping of down the corridor.  
Valtteri picked up the book again as Aimee rounded the corner shouting back over her shoulder “I would however, go and check on your brother. He seems by the hour getting closer and closer to picking the lock that you installed on the alcohol cabernet”  
She disappeared back around the corner and Valtteri leaned his head back against the wall, he was about one drunken incident away from sending his brother to alcoholics anonymous with or without his consent.  
He dog-eared the book and stood dusting of his pants and heading down toward the main hall where his parents and his brother where; no doubt; busy driving the entire servant population completely insane.  
He headed over toward the stairs that were used mostly by the servants. A large bay window topped the stairs from which he could see across the grounds, over the lake and toward the woods beyond. He remembered coming up his as a child and hiding away from the world when the mess and noise of the aristocracy became too much. He had almost always felt as if he got along with the servant better than he did the upper classes. They were kind to him, they wanted to have adventures with him and hear what he had to say, though in hindsight that may have just been because they were being paid to.  
His thoughts where interrupted by a man coming up the stairs, valtteri turned and nodded to him, the man gave him a small nod in response.  
“Good afternoon” said valtteri  
The tall blond man simply nodded again and made his way into one of the rooms in the corridor, the very one valtteri had been leant against a few minutes before. Valtteri frowned this was the same man that he had seen with the red haired girl down by the stables and valtteri wondered, rather uncomfortably, if he had interrupted some kind of secret meeting and decided that it might be better if he went down to the main hall sooner rather than later  
***  
Valtteri went down stairs to a melee of activities, his mother and father stood on top of the first few stairs yelling instructions down to a large group of savants that where running here and there fixing things to walls and draping things from ceilings. It had been announced earlier that day after the king had had a meeting with a dark haired woman; the woman who Valtteri thought was Sebastian’s matchmaker; that the party this year would be a masked ball.  
His mother, who believed that every party should have a theme, had chosen the phantom of the opera this year though Valtteri supposed that it was at least very fitting. The whole room had been made to look like the lair of the phantom, with candelabras emerging from the floor and magnificent lighting that seemed to create shadows, where logically no shadow would be caste. The floor had been repainted in a blue shimmer that when paired with the smoke emitted from a machine in the corner made it appear as if one was walking on water.  
Valtteri had to admit that while he thought that this whole display was really rather over the top it did look wonderful, he smiled to himself.  
He looked around for his brother, indeed that man was rather close to the alcohol cabernet for Valtteri’s liking but he had been intercepted by the dark haired matchmaker. They appeared to be having a rather intense conversation to which Sebastian was nodding earnestly too and seeming to agree with almost everything that the young woman was saying. Valtteri smiled it appeared that he was not needed after all. He made his way over to the large wooden doors that led outside tapping his pocket to make sure that the cigarettes that he had taken from his father’s office where still in there and went off in search of a few moments to himself. This was the calm before the storm he thought to himself as he settled on the wooden steps that led down toward the walled garden.  
He pulled out a cigarette from his pocket lighting it as he put it in between his lips, he’d have to keep an eye on Sebastian as well tonight he was under no illusion that he would be able to spend the whole night sober. He shuddered remembering the last time, it had ended with him holding his brothers hair back while the other man was sick into a potted plant. He would keep a very close eye on his brother that was not an experience that one wanted to have twice.  
(The plant had of course perished)  
***  
Sebastian leaned in to hear what the dark haired woman was saying to him.  
“so” he said “you managed to get this man to come to the ball here tonight” his voice thrummed with excitement at the thought of meeting someone he might actually be able to find an attraction too. He could only hope that his brother had been right and that his parents wouldn’t hate him for it.  
The woman nodded “that is correct” she said “he will be here” she didn’t add that she had no idea how she would get the grumpy man here. She hadn’t thought that far ahead and as she looked down at her watch she had to admit that even by her standards she was cutting it a little bit fine.  
Sebastian was practically vibrating in excitement, happiness radiating from him; she swallowed hoping that she could make this all go well for her and Britta’s sake as much as for Sebastian’s.  
“how will I know who he is, it is a masked ball after all” asked Sebastian, this was after all not an unreasonable question.  
Minttu smiled “he’ll be wearing a red tie with a trident on it” she said with a smile thumbing the one that was already in her pocket.   
Maybe she was getting a little bit carried away but then Sebastian smiled, real and happy and she couldn’t bring herself to care.   
***  
Later that day Minttu had made her way toward the office of Sebastian’s Father Norbert Vettel (for the second time that day) and currently she was sat in a plush velvet chair while the king frowned at the file she had presented to him. She had spent more time speaking to royalty in one day than she had ever thought she’d do in her life.  
“hmm,” he said “I can see how this may be a problem”  
Minttu nodded “ I am requesting permission for you to open your ball to your servants, this way it would allow for Kimi to arrive at the event without arousing his suspicion”  
Norbert frowned he did not look convinced.  
“it would make for great P.R your highness” she said by way of sweetening the deal.   
Norbert nodded that much was certainly true “I would have to clear this with my wife and we would have to find another way of offering food and drink to our guests”  
Minttu smiled “allow me to suggest something your highness, how about an open air picnic that way guests may serve themselves what they like and equally may eat whenever they like. The food would be laid out before the party allowing for the servants to enjoy the event too”  
Norbert smiled “my dear why, pray are you not on our pay roll”  
Minttu shrugged and smiled “I’ll take that as a yes”  
Norbert nodded “from me at least I shall speak to my wife, I may be king but her word is always final”  
Minttu laughed a little at that “you do not mind then, neither his status nor his gender”  
Norbert sighed “I can do little about who my son likes, nor would I want too, he is the way he is and I love him no matter what. As for this Kimi’s status in society, I suppose I can handle it if I can. Good luck to the man.” He looked down at the desk “I am aware that my son has been made most unhappy of late by this life and I would do anything in my power to change it, and if this young Kimi may be at all constructive to my sons happiness I would have him in Sebastian’s life no matter what his status may be”  
Minttu nodded taking it that this meant she was dismissed “thank you sir,” she said “I will do everything I can for Sebastian”  
I will see this man happy if it is the last thing I do, she vowed.


	6. am i running an estate or a daycare?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kimi gets cold and minttu joins forces with a freind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im back!!! i hope you all like this i promise to do kimi and sebs date soon. also that hand holding on the podium !!!!!!!!

Minttu was watching the tall groundskeeper going about his business from the landing of the second floor. Under any other circumstances she may entertain the thought that this was more than a little creepy, but needs must. She was attempting to discover who among the household staff Kimi Raikkonen may consider a friend; with the hopes that she would be able to assure Kimi’s attendance to the ball through the help of a friend. So far she was having precious little luck; it appeared that Kimi did not associate with a single person. The closest had got to conversation the entire morning was a small smile at the mare in the stables near the lake, and she hardly thought that she could count on the persuasive powers of an animal.  
Kimi seemed to enjoy his work at least, though he rarely smiled, he seemed to have a solid look about him, of someone who is completely comfortable within their own skin and has precious few doubts about himself. Well, Minttu thought, god job that, Sebastian Vettel was jumpier than a bag of frogs, maybe the two of them would be able to balance each other out.  
Minttu was begging to give up hope that Kimi Raikkonen would ever speak to anyone and she would have to seek the aid of a mare when he was approached by a red head and a small dark haired girl both of whom looked like they worked in the kitchens. They were carrying a small wicker basket that Kimi took with a smile and a nod of thanks. The dark haired girl left again almost immediately with a wave over her shoulder as she jogged back up toward the servants entrance to the great house. The red head however, settled down on the grass next to the rose bushes tapping the ground beside to her indicating that Kimi should join her on the damp ground.  
The girl began pulling things out from the basket passing a few to Kimi and taking the majority for herself. Such seemed to draw a laugh from Kimi it was clear that the two where close and not merely acquaintances. The two ate in relative silence before the girl with a glance at her watch began to pack the picnic back up; she gave the blond man a quick one armed hug and dashed back up toward the house. Minttu turned quickly from the window and dashed down the stairs hoping that she would be able to intercept the girl on her way between the servants entrance and the kitchens a few floors below.  
***  
Kimi sighed dusting the grass on his pants, water from the damp lawn however, clung to them. It was alright for Aimee she could return to the warmth of the kitchens to dry off; he however was stuck outside in the ever oppressive English cold and damp. He steeled there was little that he could do about it now he might as well get moving and hope that the day’s activities would starve off the cold the lingered in his bones.  
He laughed a little at that, go figure a Finn complaining about the cold, his mother would probably disown him if she were here. He shook his head dislodging those thoughts from it, it would do no good to dwell on things like that, he missed them though, missed them with an aching longing. The pain settled into his body with familiarity, he was no stranger to it, not any more. He could live with it, he told himself, he had done so thus far.  
He pulled up his hood as the rain became more determined and began to make his way over to the stables to make sure that the horses were not too worried by the growing storm. He shivered at the rain that made its way under his hood and down his neck, he welcomed however, it at least it gave him something else to focus on.  
***  
A hand snatched out from behind a corner and grabbed Aimee’s apron, with a yelp of shock she tripped over her feet and ended up crashing into the floor with a painful thud.  
A voice behind her cussed “oh fuck, shit. Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you so much”  
Aimee righted herself a little on the hard wooden floor “well” she said with a scowl at the beautiful dark haired woman stood above her “try saying hi next time instead of popping out from behind the corner like some kind of Freddy Kruger”  
The woman laughed offering her hand to Aimee “sorry” she said dragging Aimee to her feet “I just wanted to make sure that I caught you, this is very important”  
Aimee stood feeling the side of her rids where she was sure that she would be sporting a rather spectacular bruise come tomorrow “yeah well, it can’t have been that important, you could have scared me to death woman”  
Minttu winced “not off to a good start am I, I’m Minttu Virtanen by the way, Sebastian’s…”  
“Sebastian’s matchmaker, yeah I know” said the girl cutting her off  
“How?”  
Aimee gave her an amused look “servants know everything sweetie, we may stand in a room with anyone we like and said person will always think of the room as empty. We see and hear everything”  
Minttu nodded that sounded about right “is there somewhere we may talk…”  
The red head took pity on her “Aimee, my names Aimee, and yes follow me I know somewhere”  
***  
Toto looked out of the office window the storm was getting worse streaks of lightning now streaking the sky, he hoped to god that no one was out in this. The wind whipped up the branches closet to the window throwing leaves and small amounts of debris against the glass. Toto grimaced if this was England attempt at summer he was dreading to think what winter would be like in this place. He was rather, at this point was regretting his life choices.  
He called out to his assistant “Nico?” there was no answer. Toto was not at all surprised by this, the more time went on the more enamoured of Lewis Nico became, and it became less and less likely that Nico would be where he should be at any given time. Well there was nothing for it he thought shrugging on the thickest coat that he could find, he’d have to go out in this himself. He had to make sure that no one was wondering around in the grounds staff or family alike.  
Maybe he’d even consider checking around the lake, geese or no geese.  
***  
Minttu was lead to the top of the house to a corridor that seemed almost abandoned a thin layer of dust coated the floor and she suspected that this wing of the house was almost completely abandoned. The girl pushed open one of the doors to prove Minttu wrong, the door opened to a neatly furnished room with a small cot in the corner, the room décor was sparse but there was enough there for Minttu to reasonably presume that the main occupant of the room was not the red haired girl sat in front of her.  
Aimee settled down onto the bed tapping the wooden chair settled next to it indicating that Minttu should take the offered chair. Minttu settled into in shifting a little in it feeling decidedly uncomfortable in account of being sat in a complete strangers room.  
“So” said Aimee “what is it that I can help you with.”  
Minttu took her time in explaining the situation to the girl sat in front of her. The girl’s eyebrows would raise every now and again and the occasional shocked gasp would escape her lips but for the most part she allowed Minttu to explain the situation with as little interruption as she could manage.  
When Minttu reached the end of her explanation only then did the girl speak again. “So it was you that had a hand in that, I was wondering why on god’s green earth where we invited to that party. It’s hardly standard procedure is it?”  
Minttu raised one shoulder in a one armed shrugged a rueful smile accompanying her action.  
The girl narrowed her eyes at Minttu “so you’re asking me to help you persuade Kimi to go to this ball so that you can set him up with Sebastian vettel, Prince Sebastian vettel.”  
Minttu nodded.  
The girls shocked expression didn’t leave her face “are you an absolute lunatic. What in high hell makes you think that this would be a good idea. You do know that Kimi is a servant, you do know that right.”  
Minttu nodded. “Sebastian is on board with this plan if it helps at all.”  
The girl shot her a dubious look, as if to say I highly doubt that and I know you’re not telling me everything. Minttu had to give it to the girl she was a hell of a lot smarter than she looked.  
“and” the girl said “I’m guessing that you don’t want me to tell Kimi that he’s being set up”  
Minttu shook her head guiltily “uh maybe not no. I’m guessing that just getting him to agree to go to the ball will be challenge enough”  
The girl barked out a laugh at this “damn right” she said “getting Kimi to any social occasion is like trying to get blood out a stone.”  
Minttu agreed with that.  
The girl sighed “fine, I’ll get him to the party but that’s all I’m agreeing to do. I don’t really fancy a career as a match maker, no offence”  
“Thank you” Minttu said with a graceful nod  
Aimee gave Minttu a cold look “but I wanted it noted that if Sebastian hurts Kimi, prince or not, I will castrate him.”  
Minttu’s mouth quirked “seems fair” she said.  
Aimee held out her hand for Minttu to shake “deal” she said shaking Minttu’s hand.  
Minttu got up from the uncomfortable chair getting ready to leave the room before remembering the tie that was still in her pocket. “Can I ask you one more favour” she said turning back to the girl who was now relaxing against the pillows on the bed.  
“Depends what it is” the girl responded  
Minttu pulled out the tie from her pocket and tossed it to Aimee who caught it in one hand with a confused look “can you get Kimi to wear this”  
Aimee inspected the tie “I don’t see why not.” She turned the tie around in her hands wondering if she should mention to Minttu Kimi’s secret, either way she knew she was getting herself into trouble. Even as she agreed to help the dark haired woman in her nefarious plot she had the sneaking suspicion that there was no way that this was going to go well.  
Minttu turned again to leave the room as Aimee decided against revealing her friend’s story it was after all not her secret to tell, oh this was going to go badly she winced to herself, this was going to go very badly indeed.  
***  
Toto was soaked through and completely miserable. He had however found more than a few members of the household staff littered about the estate and had sent them into the safety of the main house he was making his way back up to the large building now, taking a detour to the stables as he did so just to make sure that no one was left in there.  
He pushed open the door the wood damp beneath his hands. He called out “oi anyone in here” he shouted.  
There was no response but never the less Toto made his way through the stalls making sure that all the horses where all ok as well. Someone had clearly been in, the horses where all covered in blankets to ward off the cold, hay filled the stalls and the animals seemed calm.  
Toto came to the end of the stables and sure enough stood in the final stall with the dark stallion (the very one that seemed to thirst for Toto’s blood) was Kimi shivering as he covered the stallion in his blanket. For once the horse didn’t give Toto a murderous look instead seeming to say to him “are you going to do something about my stupid frozen human”.  
Toto gave Kimi a furious look “what in gods name do you think you’re doing out here, and in such a thin coat, are you trying to kill yourself.”  
Toto shrugged off his coat tossing it to Kimi. (The horse may not be in a murderous mood but Toto was taking no risks)  
“Put this on” he said “leave the horses their more than ok” he herded a bundled up Kimi out of the stables and towards the main house. “Let’s get you warmed up. idiot”  
A bedraggled Kimi followed him. ,Honestly Toto thought to himself, am I running an estate or a day-care centre?


	7. he hoped his corpse put them of dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you shall go to the ball

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much to the people who comment and kudos you mean the world. also i promise i will write the ball next chapter :P  
> also conversation with ** is in british sign language

**”I’m not going” ** said Kimi settling himself on the bed shooting his friend a dirty look ** “why on earth would I want to go”**  
Aimee rolled her eyes at him ** “come on it’ll be fun I promise” **  
Kimi raised one eyebrow but apparently didn’t think it would be worth justifying that comment with a response.   
Aimee gave him a sad look “pleeeese” she said (vocally this time she rather thought that this warranted the persuasive powers of a winey voice)  
Kimi gave her a cold look ** “no, beside what would I even wear. I have one pair of trousers and they have mud on them that, trust me, nothing is ever going to get out”** he shrugged ** “I’d look ridiculous” **  
Aimee grinned at that ** “I can help with that at least” ** she darted out of the room and came back with a large duffle bag that she dropped onto Kimi’s bed with a load thump and a triumphant grin. ** “look in there” **   
Kimi shot her a dubious look and pulled the bag toward him unzipping it slowly almost as if he didn’t want to, Aimee rather thought that he where opening it as if there where snakes in there and she was not impressed.  
Kimi pulled back the flaps of the bag gasping in shock, ** “Aimee Jesus what were you thinking” ** he pulled out from the bag a par of fine tailored trousers that looked to be exactly Kimi’s size. Underneath it was a fine dress shirt, white, with sliver blue buttons a finer shirt that Kimi had ever worn. What really drew Kimi’s attention was the deep blue coat so dark that in appeared black in all but direct light, it was beautiful and likely just on its own had cost more than Aimee made in several months. He drew it out to get a closer look at it, he wanted to scold Aimee for spending such an obvious amount of money, he had no idea how she had gotten hold of something so very fine, but he was drawn back to the bag when out from it Aimee pulled a mask.   
A beautiful white mask that looked as if it had been specifically moulded to fit the curves and angels of his face; the mask covered one half of his face, an untraditional mask then, he supposed that it was fitting for such an unusual event. He held it up to his face placing it against his cheek, the mask stuck firmly to him, hiding well the one side of his face that he chose it to. It held firm, he guessed that there was some kind of glue on it; he hoped that he’d be able to get the mask back of again after he had worn it to the stupid ball.  
He gave Aimee an irritated look ** “just how much goddam money did you spend on this stupid thing” **  
Aimee shot him an angry look ** “calling it a stupid thing, that’s a tad offensive” **  
Kimi glared at her *”Aimee?”*  
She shrugged not answering his question ** “I had a bit of money put by ok, for a rainy day” **  
Kimi pushed the suit and the bag back towards her ** “take this back there is no way that I can accept this, take it back and get your money back you stupid woman. You need that money”**  
Aimee shrugged ** “I can’t” ** she said ** “I threw away the receipts, I knew you say something like this, so I prepared” **  
Kimi sighed there was no way that he’d be able to get out of this now not after his friend had spent so much money on buying him this stupid beautiful suit. God he hated the woman right now, he really did not want to go to this awful party.  
Aimee grinned clearly smelling blood ** “so, you are going to go to the ball” **  
Kimi gritted his teeth ** “I don’t think that I’ve been given much choice in the matter have I” ** he said  
Aimee shook her head ** “nope”** she said ** “none at all really” **  
She got up to leave the room feeling rather triumphant when Kimi’s hand shot out to catch her wrist ** “thank you, by the way, it’s beautiful. I appreciate it.” **  
She smiled, her ice man was a real softy deep down, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. ** “you’re welcome” **  
Kimi got up giving her a brief one armed hug ** “and don’t think you are getting out of this ball, if you’re making me go you had better make damn sure that you’re there too” **  
Aimee gave him a haughty look ** “maybe I’ll be there” ** she said with a smile  
Kimi glared at her and tossed a rolled up bit of paper at her retreating back, she giggled and raced of down the corridor to escape her friend’s wrath.   
Kimi carefully folded up the suit and placed it back into the bag that Aimee had brought it to him in. As he closed the bag something in the corner of it caught his eyes. He pulled it out, it was a tie made in the same colour as the suit jacket, embroidered at the bottom was a small trident, something that had always reminded him of home, reminded him of where he had come from. Attached to it was a small note that said wear me, he grinned his friend sure did have some hell kind of nerve.   
He did back up the bag folding the tie carefully on top of the rest of the elegant suit. With a small smile he slotted it underneath his bed. His friend may be rather manipulative but he knew that she meant well, he just worried about the amount of money his friend had spent of coercing him into coming to a party with her. He shook his head he was lucky to have her and didn’t he just know it.   
***  
Aimee skipped her way down the corridor thinking that it had all gone rather well, Kimi had brought the whole thing hook line and sinker, Stefania had been right nothing gets a man where you want him like a good old guilt trip.  
She let herself back into her room settling down on her bed. Kimi did have a good point now just what on earth was she going to wear; she went over to her wardrobe thumbing through the garments that she had in there. They were all rather worn and faded. Those that she didn’t use for work had their fair share of holes in them or at the very least had lost the majority of their colour. She sighed pulling out the dress with the fewest disenable holes. It was a faded lilac gown with ruffles on the bottom of it ruffles that defiantly looked like they had seen better days. She raised one shoulder in a one armed shrug well this would just have to do. She was looking around the room for something to fashion into a mask when a knock at the door interrupted her thoughts.   
Aimee opened the door to Stafania Arivabene stood at the door her hand held carefully behind her back clearly concealing something. She had a small grin on her face and was biting her bottom lip in an attempt to hide it.   
Aimee gave her a confused look wondering what on earth her friend was doing here looking to the entire world as if she were the smuggest person in it.   
“Stef, it is 11.30, what are you doing here”   
Stef puffed out a frustrated breath of air “oh don’t act like I was interrupting something I know you were in Kimi’s room not getting ready for bed. Besides you need to let me in I have something for you.”  
Aimee opened the door wider to let her friend in; she gave stef a mock curtsey as she did so. “Yes my lady” she muttered  
Stef entered her small smile getting wider “don’t be such an ass, you’re going to love it” she kept her back to Aimee as she got closer to the bed. Finally she pulled out what she had from behind her back and laid it down upon the bed with a gratified “ta-dah”  
Aimee gasped it was beautiful. Stefania had laid out upon the bed a silver grey dress with elegant of the shoulder straps. The floor length gown shimmered in the half light of the dim room. What was really magnificent however was the bottom of the gown. Made out of (what she assumed where mock gems) where waves that circled the bottom of the dress, from those waves leapt silver horses that danced on top of the water.  
“Stef this is beautiful, where did you get this”   
Stef smiled at her “it was my wedding dress” she said “Maurizio had it made for me especially, but I altered it a little, it should fit you now”  
Aimee shook her head “stef I can’t accept it, this is your wedding dress”  
Her friend wrapped one arm around the red head “I heard how you bribed Kimi into going to that ball and if you don’t accept the dress I shall tell him that it was not your money that you spent on the purchase of that suit but Norbert Vettel’s. Nice work by the way you pull of my guilt trip trick like a professional”  
Aimee gave her friend an exasperated look “you are a sneaky woman, a very sneaky woman.”  
Stef nodded “true, now put on that dress I want to make sure it fits. Cinderella will go to the ball if I have anything to say about it, now all that’s left is to find you a mask”  
***  
The storm continued to rage outside and Kimi pulled the blankets close up around him. He was frozen. He may have chosen the room in the quietest part of the house, but that did come with its down falls. The family where hardly going to heat an entire wing of the house if the only person living there was a servant. Norbert Vettel even insisted that his family all lived in one wing of the house. Such on night like this Kimi’s lonely haunt was prone to getting more than a little icy, said corridor was not beyond the growing of icicles on widows and the freezing of glass in the depths of winter.  
It didn’t exactly help his condition that he had gotten a thorough soaking earlier that day and his bones had yet to thaw out. For once his title as “the iceman” seemed rather painfully literal. Not for the first time he began to ponder the inconvenience of having chosen such a room.  
he pulled out another blanket from underneath the bed to cover himself hoping that that might starve of the night and keep him from freezing to death or at least keep him from getting a rather nasty cold, but when a hacking cough retched through him aggravating his throat he came to the conclusion that that ship had probably already sailed and resigned himself to a horrible week. Well at least if he had to spend the week in bed someone else would have to take care of the geese, he hoped that person would be Toto, and he hoped that he got to watch.  
Kimi smiled to himself, maybe this would get him out of the ball, though he seriously doubted it. Aimee, he thought was probably not beyond taking a corpse to the ball if it meant that he kept his word. He groaned pulling the blanket over his head hoping that it would keep him a little warmer and puzzled at the complexities of the aristocracy that had driven them to thinking that parties with servants constituted plans well made.  
Idiots the lot of them he hoped his corpse put them of their dinners.


	8. there was plenty of time for panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the dance finally the dance!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really hope i don't disappoint with this chapter

Kimi shot his friend a furious glare ** “I look ridiculous” **  
Aimee smiled at him ** “no you don’t and you know it, you just don’t want to go, now put on your shoes I am not beyond taking you to this Ball in your socks then you really will look ridiculous” **  
Kimi sighed slipping his feet into a rather too expensive set of black shoes; really he thought that this whole thing was completely stupid. He had no idea why everyone was so keen on him going to this thing it was hardly as if he was going to be good company, even on the best of days he could only just about muster up a sentence. If he was being honest with himself it was defiantly going to be one of those days, Kimi’s head was spinning like a merry go road, and he had caught a cold for sure, though it felt more like the flu. Aimee had brushed it off when he had told her telling him that it was simply man flu and he was playing it up because he didn’t want to go to the party. When in actuality Kimi felt as if he wanted to expel things from both ends and his chest felt as if several rocks had taken up residence on it, his throat felt tighter and even more painful than usual and Kimi wanted nothing more than to curl up in a corner and quietly die.  
Kimi wondered what crime he had committed in a previous life to deserve such a cruel kind of torture in this one.  
** “ready” ** asked Aimee  
Kimi snorted no he was most defiantly not but there was no backing out of this now he might as well go and make the best of it, hope that there was some alcohol somewhere so he could drink the lot and forget that he had ever had to go to this stupid party in the first place. And if he was sick on his lovely new suit then so be it.  
Aimee grabbed his hand and began pulling him towards the door, Kimi feeling rather too much like a four year old, dragged his feet the whole way, all the way from the room and right to the entrance to the great hall. He had to admit that they made a pretty pair Aimee and himself. He in his dark blue suit and she in the silver grey dress with the leaping horses with blonde hair contrasting beautifully against her red, as it turned out both of them washed up well.  
Kimi took a deep breath taking Aimee’s hand and placing it on his arm; he drew himself tall and led her toward the two double doors and the staircase that led down to the great hall and the dance floor beneath.  
The stair case had been painted the same colour as the dance floor, a shimmering blue than looked like the top of the lake frozen in the winter, it shimmered in the half-light cast by the candelabra’s that seemed to emerge from the dance floor at random. A thin layer of smoke covered the ground, also caught the dim candle light and sparked it around the room in thin rays of light.  
The smoke thin as it was seemed to catch on the long dresses of the women curling and dancing around their feet and being thrown up against their slim bodies, making it look as if they were parting the waters and dancing in the clouds.  
Kimi and Aimee took all of this in with a look on wonder they had never seen anything so spectacular in their life’s, usually servants, excepting those who acted as waiting staff, never got to see the finished product of the preparation for the Balls but even Kimi had to admit that the royal family had gone above and beyond for this, he had never seen anything so spectacular in his whole life. The phantom of the opera aesthetic had certainly been achieved by the queen, it was amazing to behold.  
Stretching across one side of the room was a large table filled with so much food that Kimi was fairly certain that he could see the legs of the table bowing beneath it enormous weight. The table was filled with enough to feed the occupants of the room comfortably for at least several weeks. The window door on one end of the table where flung open and through them Kimi could see chairs and tables had been laid out and some of the older invitees to the ball had already taken up residence at them, they were watching the stars shoot across the sky with looks of wonder.  
Aimee tugged on Kimi’s arm and he began to lead her down the marble staircase the sea of smoke parting beneath their footsteps.  
A few of their friends from amongst the servant population where already at the party they held ranks together mostly clustered in small groups next to the table holding the food, looking rather at a loss as what to do.  
The only members of the servant popular at present brave enough to enjoy the party where Maurizio and Stefania, who somehow managed to look as equals to the aristocrats that paraded around them, Stef was dressed in a bright red gown that hugged her form delightfully and Maurizio in a slim fitting black suit with a red tie to match Stef’s dress, Kimi was happy to say that they looked magnificent, two servant drawing the applicative glances of the couples that danced around them.  
Stef spared Kimi and Aimee a small smile and a tiny wave as she was spun around the floor by her beaming husband. Aimee without warning let go of Kimi’s arm and began to move across the dance floor toward whom Kimi assumed was a friend of hers.  
He in turn decided to make his was over to the table that looked as if it was offering the strongest alcohol. Instead of grabbing a glass of the table, as had clearly been intended, he grasped upon his knowledge as a servant and looked beneath the table for the real deal. With a small smile he pulled out a bottle of red wine from beneath the table and took it with him to the end of the room, leaning against the door frame of the balcony windows that had been opened earlier that night he popped of the cork to the wine with a satisfying sound.  
He tipped up the bottle taking a good portion of the liquid into his mouth he smiled, if nothing else he would be able to get rather splendidly drunk tonight. He took several more deep gulps of the wine smiling as he felt the burn of it slipping down his throat.  
After he had drunk his fill of the wine he leant back against the wall the bottle of half-drunk wine placed on the ground beside him. He looked out into the throng of people smiling at Aimee who seemed to have found herself a rather nice looking man to latch onto for the evening. She gave him a small wave and an angry frown when she caught sight of the wine bottle by his feet.  
Kimi was settling into a rather pleasant night of people watching and getting steadily more drunk on the kings best when he was interrupted by a tugging on his sleeve. Kimi frowned wondering who had recognized him (and however unwisely) wished to engage him in some semblance of a conversation.  
He turned around facing him was a man dressed in the most expensive type of finery imaginable, Kimi rolled his eyes what on earth could this noble boy want with him. The man was dressed in a suit, the colour of which wasn’t too far from the one that Kimi himself was wearing, he was wearing a golden mask that failed to hide the features of the man, his eyes wide and excited. His gaze strayed to Kimi’s tie that was visible only because Kimi had his jacket open feeling flushed and uncomfortable.  
The man looked as if he recognized Kimi but Kimi couldn’t think for the life of him why this (obviously) noble boy would have any idea who his was. Then Kimi’s insides seemed to turn to ice when in one fell swoop his mind put the puzzle pieces together. This was the prince, the prince who he had seen naked and drunk in the palace pond only a few days prior, fuck, Kimi swore the prince had figured out who was snooping n him and had come over to him to fire him publically in front of all the guests and servants, well fuck him, Kimi said to himself he wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. He was about to leave to flee out of the double doors behind him when the man stick out his hand toward Kimi a bright, overly toothy smile on his face (Kimi wondered if perhaps he was a bit simple) .  
“I’m Sebastian, it’s very nice to meet you” he said his voice almost trembling with excitement  
Kimi wondered is there might just be something that he was missing here, the young prince seemed rather too excited to be speaking to his groundskeeper in front of everyone important in society.  
Kimi simply rolled his eyes however not saying anything, not that he could and placed his calloused hand in the prince’s smaller smooth one and shook it, still rather perplexed about what the hell was going on here.  
“It’s really nice to meet you Kimi” said the young prince again, well Kimi thought to himself at least the young prince seemed to be happy to take the burden of the conversation upon himself, Kimi was more than ok with that.  
The young prince was still smiling giving no indication that he had recognized Kimi in the same way that Kimi had recognized him. Kimi sighed well thank god for small mercies he supposed. If the prince was bothered by Kimi’s silence he didn’t say anything, though Kimi supposed that sooner or later it would become a problem.  
The young prince held out his hand toward Kimi, Kimi frowned at it wondering what the prince was expecting him to do, if he wanted Kimi to kneel and kiss it that was so not going to happen.  
The prince instead surprised him by asking “would you like to dance?”  
Had Kimi not been a man of exemplary control his eyebrow would have shot up well into his hairline but as it Kimi merely allowed himself a small almost imperceptible intake of shocked air. After a small pause he nodded and placed his hand once again into the princes wondering what the hell the other man was thinking. Kimi was rather grateful that he had chosen a larger mask one that hid his face to the highest possible degree, he didn’t want to be recognized after this by the prince most of all.  
Kimi could only come to the conclusion that the younger man had consumed too much alcohol and was in the process of a series of poor decision making, though Kimi had to confess that he could smell no drink on the man’s breath much unlike his own, he was fairly certain that he reeked of wine.  
As the music started the prince seemed more than content to take the lead, which relaxed Kimi a little he was hardly an experienced dancer as that was quite simply not in the skills set for a gardener.  
The prince spun him around to the music and Kimi was surprised at how well he was able to follow the man’s movements and how well their two bodies fit together, he even found himself smiling a little, the princes face lit up at that and Kimi wondered not for the first time that evening that there seemed to be more to this whole situation than anyone was letting on to him.  
The smoke curled around them in their ever faster movements hiding them from the rest of the dance room and Kimi let himself for a moment just for a moment take pleasure in the evening, and to enjoy the feeling of holding a handsome man in his arms. There was after all, plenty of time for panic once the dance ended.


	9. there was no way this was going well

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> now was the time for panic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry i missed thursdays update i had the flu, yeah in summer i know. anyway i hope you like the chapter as always comments and kudos are so appriciated

As the music was coming to a close Kimi was wondering really how inappropriate it would be if he was to be sick all over the dance floor, surely it wouldn’t have been the first time that someone had done something like that.  
The couples around them where slowing and beginning to part, while politely clapping the musicians in the corner of the room. Sebastian and Kimi in turn began to slow; their hands parting as Sebastian led Kimi toward the corner of the room. Kimi spared the open doors a longing glance as he once again contemplated bolting out of them. He wondered how long he could really put of the inevitable awkwardness of the evening.  
They made their way over to the drinks table and Seb passed Kimi an elegant champagne flute and smiled at him expectantly. Kimi’s stomach sank there was no way that this was going to go well. His throat felt tight and his suit even tighter, god this was going to be an uncomfortable evening for the both of them.  
Seb’s fingers felt cold about the glass of alcohol as he watched the older man’s eyes dart about the room, he looked nervous thought Sebastian, even more nervous than he himself felt. He wondered what he could say to the man to assure him that the evening would not be nearly as uncomfortable or awful as he clearly thought that it would be.   
The man was beautiful, Seb mused, tall with short blond hair, piercing blue eyes and strong arms that Seb would love to have wrapped around himself, he smiled ruefully he couldn’t seem to stop looking at this man and taking in his astonishingly good looks.   
He wondered why the man made no attempt at conversation, but judging by the look of him that could be put down to simple nerves, though Sebastian wondered that it might be down to something more. It admittedly calmed Sebastian to think that he wasn’t the most nervous one here. He supposed then that the block of the conversation would be down to him, not that he minded of course, if there was one thing that Sebastian Vettel was good at it was talking. His brother often said that he did it all too much, and especially when he was nervous, Seb tended to have a habit of talking double time when he was scared, so fast that sometimes most people struggled to understand what he was saying.  
“So” Sebastian said, finally making a small attempt at conversation though his stomach was doing flip flops the whole time “what exactly is it that you do”  
Kimi was utterly bemused at why he was being asked so, he could only draw the conclusion that the prince had agreed to being set up with him, though it was clear that some of the details as to who Kimi was had artfully been left out of the file, or at least left out of the one that had been given to his royal highness.  
Kimi simply shrugged in response to Sebastian’s question, he hoped that the action looked like practiced disinterest rather than filled with the nervous energy that was thrumming through Kimi.  
Seb seemed to take it as the former rather than the latter, he nodded in understanding “an heir then” he said as if he where more than familiar with the idea of someone doing absolutely nothing with their lives under the assumption that they need not, thinking that they’d simply get the money any way when one of both of their parents popped their clogs. Kimi assumed that this was hardly an unfamiliar situation within the aristocracy.  
“And I guess you know who I am” Seb continued  
Kimi tilted his head to one side raising the same shoulder as he did so, almost to say how he could not know who the prince was, the prince of whose party he was currently attending. Kimi was getting more panicked by the moment he wondered how long he could really keep it up with these non-verbal responses and when Sebastian would eventually either call him out on it, or ask him a question that required some kind of proper response.  
“So” the prince said “Kimi Raikkonen, that’s a really cool name, where are you from. I mean I know that it said on your file but I can’t for the life of me remember what it said.”  
Aaaannnd there it was.  
The inevitable, a question that Kimi could not answer by moving his head or shrugging his shoulders. Kimi went beetroot red at the question and Sebastian could feel himself panicking in turn, having no idea that Kimi was; as terrified by the situation as he was; more than ready to throw himself out of the closest window.  
Sebastian turned back to the table to put his champagne down, clearly this conversation required less speaking and more dancing. He had in under five questions managed to mortally offend his date, maybe it was better that he said as little as possible.  
He turned back to where Kimi had been, ready to apologize for his intrusive personality and suggest that they just danced the rest of the evening. That had been fine Sebastian hadn’t been causing offence then. But when he turned back to face Kimi he found the spot rather vacant. Sebastian’s mouth was left hanging open, the apology dying on his tongue, as he glanced about the room searching for the other man. He caught sight of Kimi all but running out of the door that led out toward the picnic blankets and gossiping old biddies.  
Sebastian’s mouth was still hanging open when he was approached by the dark haired matchmaker and the man he thought was his housekeeper’s husband.  
“What happened?” Minttu asked “what did you do?”  
Sebastian turned to her completely perplexed over what had just happened, his mouth still hanging open (he hadn’t yet had the presence of mind to close it). He gave the woman a mournful look “I just asked him where he was from.”  
Sebastian sat down heavily on one of the chairs set of by the food table, clearly intended for the people that couldn’t bear to separate themselves from the luxuries for more than a few minutes.  
He looked up at Minttu with a lost look in his eyes “I thought it was going well, I thought that he might like me, am I really so disagreeable.” He placed his head in his hands after downing the rest of his glass of champagne “you can tell my father that this whole thing has been a mistake, he can give the throne to valtteri, he’d be better suited to it anyway.”  
Toto sighed and sat down beside the young prince who until now he had simply assumed was an arrogant self-centred man; it appeared that he had been more than a little mistaken, if anything Sebastian was just a vulnerable young man.  
He knew that he had to be careful with his words, Minttu had stated that the prince had no idea he was being set up with a servant and he rather thought that she’d want him to keep it that way. “Look your highness, I wouldn’t take it too personally, Mr Raikkonen is just a very quiet, grumpy man.”  
Sebastian raised his head from his hands to look at Toto “do you think I talk too much, that I irritated him and he left.”  
Toto wasn’t quite sure how to answer that without losing his job “um” he said by way of a response.  
“wait how do you know Kimi?” asked Sebastian, not in an accusing way, but in a way that made Toto think that he was just desperate for more information about the sulky older man. Toto wasn’t sure that he could help with that, in all his years of working with Kimi he had just about been able to get a sentence out of the man.  
“I used to work with his family” Toto said after a quick glance toward Minttu who nodded imperceptibly at his answer.  
“How well do you know Kimi?” asked the man his eyes bright, Toto could clearly see that he had taken a shine to groundskeeper. Later Toto would have words with Minttu about telling the man the truth about the whole situation.  
If he really liked Kimi as well as he thought he did it was owed not just to the young prince to be told the truth but also to Kimi. The prince after all couldn’t fall in love with a lie. Though, at this point Toto doubted that such a thing was even on the cards, what with Kimi fleeing the dance like a ghost, with the smoke swirling around him like a phantom. Kimi would have liked that description thought Toto; he had rather a flair for the dramatics.  
Sebastian cocked his head to one side “why does he not talk?” the young prince asked. It appeared that he was far more perceptive than he let on.  
Toto was about to open his mouth to say that he had absolutely no idea, that he had never thought it polite to ask, when a voice from behind the table piped up.  
“I believe I may be able to help with that”

***  
As Sebastian turned away Kimi saw his opportunity to escape before he made a fool of himself in front of this beautiful young man. As Sebastian faced away he bolted in the most undignified manner, heading over to the double doors that led towards the picnic tables as quickly as he could.  
He didn’t spare a look back no matter how much he wanted to, he was afraid that if he saw the younger man stood by the table alone that he would crack and end up going back over and inevitably making a fool of himself, no, he wouldn’t do that, he managed to keep his resolve and made a quick exit.   
He made his way down to the lake ignoring the curious looks of the old biddies sat around gossiping. The mud coated his fine shoes; well there was nothing to be done about it now he thought, though he did send a silent apology to Aimee who clearly had spent close to her damn lifesavings on these things.   
He reached the lake and drew a long deep breath; he leant back against one of the tall silver birches that surrounded the lake. It was surprisingly quite here, the noise of the party not reaching this far. The night was warmer that it had been in weeks yet Kimi still felt cold. His hands shook and he couldn’t seem to shift the feeling of ice that clung to his body. He shivered violently and pulled his jacket closer around him, it did slim to nothing to help but it would have to do, there was no way that he was going back in there, not while he stood any chance of bumping into the prince again and making an even bigger fool out of himself than he had already done.   
He slid down the tree no longer caring about the state of his suit; well he could always get it dry cleaned; and collapsed onto the ground. Despite how boggy the field on the way there had been the ground around the lake was, in contrast, rather mercifully dry, and did not make Kimi any colder than he already was.  
He shivered again, as miserable as he felt he’d just have to sit this one out, the party couldn’t go on for that much longer could it? He hadn’t felt so terrible back at the dance hall; the heat of the hall had probably starved of the symptoms of his flu while he was in there, but now he felt well and truly wretched.  
He hoped the party would be over soon so he could slink back inside and sleep for the rest of the week. He sighed with his luck he’d be here till next year, they royal family where hardly known for holding any sort of gathering that would conclude before 4 in the morning. He resigned himself to the fact that he’d probably be here for the long haul. He hadn’t intended to fall asleep in the dirt beside the lake but his eyes began to close as his exhaustion began to overtake him. He was asleep before he knew it, not noticing the large drops of rain that had begun to fall.  
Aimee was so going to kill him when she saw the suit.


	10. sooner rather than later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kimi has a damsel in destress moment and some secrets are told also read the notes if your confused

Sebastian looked up at the red haired girl; she was leant against the dining table eating a peach. Surprisingly however stood beside her was Sebastian’s brother looking at the girl with a rather awestruck expression.  
The girl placed the peach down on the table and held out her hand toward Sebastian a small smile on her face “I’m Aimee, a friend of Kimi’s, or rather Kimi’s only friend he can be really quite disagreeable when he wants to be”  
Sebastian shook her hand with a small smile not commenting on Kimi’s temperament, he suspected that while it was perfectly ok for Aimee to insult her friend with smiles and ease it would not go down quite so well should he seek to attempt it. He said instead a simple and polite “it’s very nice to meet you Miss Aimee”  
Aimee smiled turning to Valtteri “I like this one he has rather lovely manners, shame really that I was led to believe that he’d be an ass”  
Sebastian spluttered and Valtteri turned bright red, well that solved the mystery of where that information had come from then.  
Aimee ignored the spluttering of the young prince and rounded on Minttu who was watching the whole scene from a small distance away. “And you,” she said to the dark haired woman “think you are very clever don’t you, finding all this information out about people and their lives. Well you missed a shot on this one didn’t you” she said grinning proudly at the other woman  
Minttu raised one elegant eyebrow though didn’t respond, she held a practiced air of disinterest though Sebastian thought that she was as keen as all the others where to find out what this piece of information that the young woman held was.  
Sebastian was still twisting his hands nervously around each other “please tell me” he said to the small red head “was it something I did, I mean maybe he took one look at me and decided he could do better. I mean have you seen the man, he’s gorgeous. He could have practically anyone he liked. And being married to a prince is hardly as magical as everyone thinks it is, everyone watching you all the time and critiquing your every move, you don’t look good in that you shouldn’t have said that, bla bla bla. Never a moment of peace, it’s not for everyone” Sebastian had hardly drawn breath throughout his whole speech and Aimee cut him off with a wave of her hand afraid that the young prince would pass out if he didn’t draw a breath soon.  
“Sebastian Vettel if you would shut up for longer than two seconds I may be able to tell you” she said tilting her head a little in amusement.  
Valtteri laughed at that “yeah good luck with that, you’d need a muzzle to keep him from talking.”  
Sebastian, in a manner that was not very befitting of either a prince or a 28 year old stuck his tongue out at his brother. Vallteri laughed as Sebastian mimed zipping his mouth closed before looking at Aimee expectantly.  
She sat down on the seat beside Sebastian and drew a deep breath “oh Kimi is so going to kill me for telling you this, but my god he’s a stubborn oaf so if I don’t do it god knows who will.”  
Sebastian looked at her in complete confusion “I don’t understand” he said at length  
“I told you he couldn’t keep quiet” quipped valtteri  
Aimee rolled her eyes at him turning back to Sebastian to ask. “So it was all going well until you wanted to have a conversation with him”  
Sebastian nodded mutely cocking his head a little as he listened to her with complete concentration.  
“Well” Aimee drew an uncomfortable breath she was clearly at odds with telling this to the small group that had gathered around her, Valtteri squeezed her shoulder in reassurance. “Kimi was involved in an accident when he was a small boy, a car accident that killed both of his parents and severely wounded Kimi. Among his many injuries Kimi was almost strangled by his seat belt. It wrapped around his neck, damaging his throat,” she looked at Toto “I assume that you’ve seen the scar there”  
Toto nodded though didn’t say any more clearly he wanted to keep out of this as much as was possible.  
Aimee took over her narration again drawing Sebastian’s attention again; he was watching her with a look of socked horror. “Kimi spent months in hospital recovering, after all in a car accident that has 2 fatalities even those that survive are bound to have their fair share of injuries. When Kimi finally woke the doctors found that the damage to his throat was more severe that they had thought.” She looked down at her hands a sad expression on her face. “The crash damaged his vocal cords, they hoped that with time his speech would return, “she shrugged “one of his vocal cords is paralyzed, not much you can do to fix that. He never talks about his parents and I don’t know any more of the accident than what I just told you ok” she said staring down the others as if daring them to argue with her.  
“Ok” said Minttu assuring the young woman that they understood.  
Sebastian was looking at her with a look of shock, clearly this had not been what he had been expecting and Aimee thought that perhaps this was not the time to also inform the prince that the man that he had just danced with was also his groundkeeper.  
Oh god was Kimi going to be mad when he found out that she had told everyone. Kimi was a deeply private person and liked to divulge as little about his past as was possible. Beyond what she had just told the others even Aimee herself knew little more about Kimi’s situation, he never mentioned his parents or who he had been before he had lost them. Aimee thought herself lucky to know what she did, Kimi had spoken of it to no one else, preferring them to think him rude and moody rather than to suffer the pitying looks of others.  
She hoped that he would forgive her for this.  
At some point in their conversation rain had begun to fall from the heavens, leading all those who had been sitting on the chairs outside to come and seek refuge inside the ballroom. The room was filling up assuredly now especially the chairs around the table where the group where clustered. Minttu noted this glancing around the ballroom that was now filled with people milling around. She sighed turning to the small group who were all frozen with varying degrees of horror painted in their expressions, they clearly hadn’t noticed the groups milling around them, nor had they realized that there conversation was no longer private.  
Clearly she was going to have to be the brains. “Maybe we should find somewhere else to continue this conversation.” The group nodded mutely excepting Sebastian who was now simply staring into space. With a sigh she took the princes arm pulling him up with her and herding the group towards a side door. It led into a small closet room that by the looks of it had been set up for ladies to retreat to, to powder their noses and other such nonsense. There where mirrors placed around the room and small comfortable chairs for the women to sit in while they fixed their appearances. Another door at the end of the room led of into what Mintuu assumed was a restroom. She set down the prince in one of the chairs carful that he didn’t end up in a pile on the floor and by the looks of him he was about ready to.  
Minttu looked about the room taking in the various shocked expressions and Aimee’s guilty one and sighed “so” she said “I’ve clearly missed something important here”  
Aimee shot her a look that said *you think*  
Valtteri was the only one in the room other than Minttu who looked like he had maintained his wits, he looked at Aimee with a thoughtful expression “Kimi’s mute isn’t he?” he muttered phrasing it more like a question than a statement with an up words tilt of his words.  
Aimee shook her head “not exactly, he can manage a few words every now and again, but it’s often difficult and painful for him, especially when he’s not feeling to well. He gets sick a lot too chest infections and the like” she looked at Toto who nodded to confirm this.  
“I think he got pneumonia once shortly after he came here, he couldn’t have been more than 20, we all thought that he was going to die. Susie devoted hours to his care, she worried about him constantly, we thought that maybe one day he’d trust us to tell us what happened to him but he never did. I guess he just wanted to forget it”  
Minttu nodded in understanding, she knew how that felt.  
Valtteri seemed to be taking in it all with a calm expression, Minttu was grateful for this as she had a suspicion that he may have to explain it all again to his brother when Sebastian’s brain came back into gear. Right now the older prince was staring at the wall intently and Minttu didn’t think it was because he found the tile pattern on the ladies washroom exceedingly interesting rather he had been shocked into silence by Aimee’s revelation.  
“you communicate with him using sign language don’t you” asked Valtteri.  
Aimee nodded “I’m that only one he can talk to no one else here knows any”  
At this Toto looked down at his hands a shameful look on his face, why had he not noticed this. He should have at least picked up on the fact that Kimi not only didn’t want to talk, that rather he couldn’t, Toto felt deeply ashamed of himself. Minttu gave him a kind smile a smile that the older man did not return, Toto resumed his staring at his hand withdrawing himself from the conversation.  
Sebastian who until this point had decided to remain silent piped up “wait it’s raining.”  
Everyone in the room looked at him as if he had lost his mind. Valtteri gave his brother a look out of the corner of his eyes “yes” he said stretching out the word as though he where implying that his brother where a little simple “that’s why we came in here, the ballroom got rather popular all of a sudden, are you drunk?”  
Aimee shook her head “no” she said “if he were drunk he’s be asking what rain is”  
Sebastian tossed a paper towel at the two of them, smirking idiots “no assholes, its raining”  
“We know” valtteri repeated  
“and Kimi’s out in it”  
There was a moment of silence amongst the group as everyone took in Sebastian’s words then Toto jumped up pushing the chair he had been sitting in falling to the floor in his haste. He swore colourfully running his hand through his hair in frustration; he turned to Aimee who had gone as white as a sheet “get your coat we have to find him as quickly as possible”  
Aimee dashed out of the room Valtteri in tow, Toto not inclined to wait for either of them to come back with the jackets dashed out of the room calling over his shoulders “I’m going to find him, as soon as the others come back I expect all of you to join me, we absolutely must find him…. as quickly as possible”  
Toto spared not a thought to the fact that he had in all intents and purposes just ordered about a prince. He reached the double doors turning up his collar against the sheer onslaught of wind and rain that was pouring from the heavens and ran out into the rain calling Kimi’s name at the top of his lungs. So focused on his task, was Toto that he didn’t notice that he was followed out into the rain by the prince, who, with a wince ran out into the rain hot on Toto heels. He didn’t understand the urgency but something about Toto reaction had told him that they needed to find Kimi sooner rather than later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some information about Kimis condition via http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/vfparalysis/  
> Kimi has Unilateral paralysis of the vocal cords, which means that one of his vocal cords is paraliysed but the other works ok, meaning that he can breath well but struggels to talk. This is why he communicates using sign language. Unilateral vocal cord paralysis is when only one side is paralyzed in the paramedian position or has a very limited movement. It is more common than bilateral involvement. The paralyzed vocal cord does not move to vibrate with the other cord but vibrates abnormally or does not vibrate at all. The individual will be unable to speak clearly or loudly.  
> Typical symptoms include:  
> hoarseness  
> breathy voice  
> inability to speak loudly  
> limited pitch and loudness variations  
> voicing that lasts only for a very short time (around 1 second)  
> choking or coughing while eating  
> possible pneumonia due to food and liquid being aspirated into the lungs (the vocal cords cannot close adequately to protect the airway while swallowing)


	11. time is of the essence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the rescue mission begins and sebastian thinks he may be being lied too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm off on holiday (again) this week so i won't be able to update for a while (sorry) but i hope you enjoy this chapter, as always comments and kudos are so appriciated. xx

Sebastian’s lungs were burning, it turned out that Toto could move at quite a speed when it was required of him. Sebastian would have screamed at him to slow down had the circumstances been any different, but Prince or not Sebastian thought that this was definitely not the time to be giving orders to anyone. The storm didn’t seem to be showing any sign of letting up and Sebastian was getting more and more worried by the second, he had really no idea why everyone; especially Toto; was so concerned, but something seemed wrong really wrong. And god help him he liked Kimi quite a lot more than he had liked anyone before. How had he managed to screw this all up so spectacularly?  
Toto dashed into the stables calling out Kimi’s name, with any luck the man would be in here, if he had any sense he would have sought out shelter when the rain started coming in thick and heavy. Toto checked every stall, even the one where Kimi’s demon stallion friend resided. The horse didn’t even try to bite him; it appeared that the beast and he had come to a sort of understanding, or at least where the welfare of Kimi was concerned. The horse instead was stood at the far end of the stall gazing out through its small window and down toward the lake.  
Toto left the stall cussing, just where the hell was the dratted man then, if he hadn’t sought out the shelter of the stables then where the fuck was he? Toto wondered if he had somehow snuck back into the house and was hiding in his room, but he dismissed that thought fairly quickly thinking that Kimi would not have risked being caught by one of his friends and being herded back into the party that he had intended to escape in the first place.  
“Is he in here?” called a voice from behind him.  
Toto spun on his heel to face the young prince, the man was soaked through his blonde curls plastered to his face and his finery dripping and sodden, he like Toto hadn’t grabbed a coat before he ran out into the storm and Toto could see that he was shivering. Dammit thought Toto, if the prince got sick because of this he was so going to get fired.  
“no” said Toto shaking his head “he’s not, and I can’t for the life of me think where he has gone, and just what do you think you are doing your majesty, go back inside before you catch your death and I am told to make my swift exit from your estate”  
The prince shook his head “not until we find Kimi, it’s my fault that he’s out here anyway; it was me that he was trying to get away from.” Sebastian shook his head looking more 16 than 28, he looked bedraggled and sad “I owe him that much at least”  
Sebastian looked over at the stallion at the far end of the stables; breaking the awkward moment with Toto; the horse was still staring out of the window that looked over the pond. He seemed to be getting rather agitated; Toto looked over following Sebastian’s gaze.  
“What the hell’s wrong with him?” Toto asked not really wanting to approach the animal when it was in such a state, secretly hoping that the prince would take the hint and go to check instead.  
Luckily for Toto Sebastian did, walking over slowly toward the animal one hand outstretched muttering softly under his breath. Sebastian pulled open the door to the stall the horse looked over his shoulder sparing Sebastian a slight glance before it went back to kicking the wall. Toto wondered if the beast was ailing.  
Sebastian entered the stall still talking to the animal in soft soothing tones but the beast barely spared him a look, it kept kicking the wall with urgency. Sebastian placed a hand on the stallion’s neck and the animal made an annoyed noise almost as if it where sighing in irritation at the stupidity of the two men.  
Sebastian screwed up his face “you know I think that he might be trying to tell us something”  
The horse stopped kicking the door at that, giving Sebastian a look that can only be described as rather exasperated, it seemed to say dumb humans it would never have taken a horse so long.  
Sebastian gave the stallion, Brutus, he thought it was called, a long look then his face seemed to brighten and he dashed out of the small space slamming the door closed behind him. Toto utterly bemused ran after him.  
“Where are we going” he called over the storm that was growing more and more fierce by the moment “Sebastian, where are we going”  
Sebastian spared him a small look as he sped down the hill toward the lake “I know where Kimi is”  
“What?!” called Toto utterly confused by Sebastian certainty  
“He’s by the lake” screamed Sebastian “down here” he skidded to a stop near the edge of the pond and spinning around before dashing of in the direction of the only cover within eye shot, a small collection of silver birch trees on the other side of the lake. Toto followed hoping that the others would be able to find them, if Kimi was here Sebastian and him would struggle to get Kimi back to the house alone, while Toto was as tall as him Kimi was far more muscly and Sebastian was nought but a small slip of a man.  
The two men split up each of them searching the ground beneath the trees in search of Kimi, both where calling out his name hoping that Kimi would at least make his presence known. Toto was growing more anxious by the second knowing that with each passing moment it was becoming clearer that Kimi was not simply avoiding company. Something had settled in the pit of his stomach, a lining like led that was growing heavier by the moment. Toto did not have a good feeling about this at all.  
Toto heard a small voice call out over the wind and rain, Sebastian’s “he’s here, Toto over here, I’ve found him”  
Toto ran over to Sebastian who was crouched low on the ground. He was shaking Kimi a look of pure panic on his face.  
He looked over at Toto, he looked like a lost child crouched there on the ground Kimi held in his arms. “why won’t he wake up, I can’t make him wake up” he had been shaking Kimi calling his name but now he seemed to freeze not able to do anything other than look up at Toto with a fearful expression on his face.  
Toto knelt down in the dirt beside Kimi and Sebastian. He took one of Kimi’s arms in his picking it up by the wrist to take the man’s pulse. It was slow and sluggish but it was definitely there, he looked over at the prince, made younger by his fear and the rain had plastered his clothes and hair to every inch of him and if Toto wasn’t very much mistaken, the young man was crying, or perhaps that was just the water that was running down his face.  
Toto took a breath and attempted to sound far calmer than he felt “we need to get him inside, do you understand Seb, we need to get him back to the house”  
Sebastian was shaking now from both the cold and the adrenaline that was coursing through him. “Is he ok”  
Toto didn’t know how to answer that instead opting to start ordering the young man around “take his feet Sebastian, I need your help to lift him, we have to move quickly and I can’t carry him alone”  
Sebastian looked happier now that someone was taking control and telling him what to do. He went to take Kimi’s feet waiting for Toto to give him more instructions.  
“ok” said Toto taking Kimi’s head with care “on three we lift him, one, two, three” the two men with a grunt of effort lifted Kimi. “Keep a tight hold ok Seb we don’t want to drop him”  
They started to make their way back towards the house, slowly for Kimi was far heavier than he looked.  
Over the brow of the hill Toto could make out through the rain the figures of the others. Aimee ran toward them bundled up in a coat and holding several more of them in her arms, she, of course was the one who reached them first.  
She took one look at Kimi and paled. “Lay him down I have something that might help.” From her pile of coats and blankets she drew out what looked like a silver bag, Toto gave her a look of confusion “Valtteri says that it’s a body bag” she gave Toto a side look, he had risen his eyes a little at that “not that kind of body bag you idiot” she said  
“It’s for camping” valtteri said helpfully as he aided Toto in the manhandeling of Kimi into the bag “for when you get caught somewhere inhospitable”  
Toto nodded that made sense “come one” he said to the younger of the two princes, Valtteri seemed to have a little more of a heft about him than Sebastian and Toto thought that between the two of them they would be able to get Kimi inside a little quicker.  
The two of them lifted Kimi with relative ease and Aimee piled another blanked over the top of him “Minttu is back at the house” she explained “she thought that we might be needing some help, so she’s calling for a doctor”  
She had been right thought Toto though he also had the suspicion that Minttu had wanted to avoid getting herself rather uncomfortably wet as the rest of them had.  
Aimee ran ahead to get the doors open and to have a fire made up while they waited for a doctor to arrive. Sebastian took Kimi’s hand in his squeezing it a little, he took comfort in the fact that he could still feel the slow steady pulse beneath his fingers god he hoped that Kimi was going to be ok, this was all his fault, all his stupid fault.  
As he was walking into the house a thought struck him, how was it that the servant girl had so much knowledge about Kimi, Sebastian thought not for the first time that night that there was something that he was not being told. Sebastian thought that Valtteri might have put the pieces together, he had after all made a few insightful comments earlier that evening, Sebastian decided he’d have to quiz his brother on this later that night.  
***  
Susie intercepted them at the door tears where running down her face and her make-up was smeared; she looked horrified at the state of Kimi. She had already gotten a fire going and it was blazing in the hearth of the small reception room. The one designed for servants of course, the one made for the nobility was far grander, and far bigger. However Susie had though that in this case purpose trumped propriety, the servants room would be far easier to heat and to keep warm. Minttu was stood in the room by the fire where Toto and Valtteri laid Kimi down.  
She was lowering a phone from her ear when they entered “the doctor will be here in 10 minutes” she said “I took the liberty of asking your personal physician to attend him your majesty” she addressed that to Sebastian who was knelt down beside Kimi the other mans’ hand clasped in his, Sebastian of course didn’t answer.  
“Thank you” said Valtteri in lieu of his brother.  
Susie appeared to be the only one amongst the small group that despite her tears, still seemed to maintain the greatest presence of mind.  
“Now” she ordered to the small group around her all of them soaking the storm into the carpets and floor boards “you all need to go and change before you freeze” she knelt down beside Sebastian and said this time in kinder tones “and that includes you too Sebastian”  
She put her arm around him drawing him to his feet and handing the shell shocked man over to her husband mouthing *you had better take good care of him* she smiled at Sebastian “I promise look after him for you nothing will happen to him i swear”  
Susie watched as Toto led the others out of the room, when they were safely out of earshot she turned toward Minttu, who like Susie had kept her composure, but unlike Susie had managed not to cry about the whole thing.  
“You had better tell that doctor of yours to hurry up, if I’m not very much mistaken this is pneumonia” said Susie in a soft but serious tone.  
Minttu pulled her phone back out at that looking for the first time as worried as Susie thought that she ought to be.  
“Tell him to get here as quickly as possible” Susie said in a sharp voice “time is of the essence”


	12. Niki lauda wondered what he was doing there

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niki and james arrive to a sticky situation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally another chapter sorry for the wait guys thank you for you patients and comments

The doctor, a bald middle aged man with a scared face and kind eyes, was busy ordering around the group of servants and royals that had returned to the room on his arrival. He had instructed; in a heavily accented voice; Valtteri to aid in the carrying of Kimi up to one of the bed chambers in the main wing. His assistant, a blond man of a similar age had a far friendlier presence than his boss and had been the one to introduce himself and the doctor to the worried looking group.   
“lay him down on the bed, gently” said the doctor, or Niki Lauda as he had been introduced by his assistant, James.  
Valtteri and James laid Kimi down and Niki covered him with a blanket instead of the thick coverlets that where arranged over the bed. Kimi was shivering as if in cold, yet sweat formed a thin sheen over his pale face. Niki leaned over to take the mans’ temperature, lifting the instrument back up to take a better look at it, he winced.   
Susie was stood near the foot of the bed, the only one from the small group that Niki hadn’t yet become irritated at and thrown out of the room.   
“It is pneumonia isn’t it” she asked  
Niki nodded solemnly “yes, I am afraid that it is”  
Susie gave a small gasp somewhere in between a stifled sob and a deep breath, she collapsed on the bed taking Kimi’s hand into hers, her soft fingers running over the callused ones of Kimi’s . She realized where the pulse had been slow and sluggish before it was now too rapid.  
Niki gave her a few moments to process this before asking the young woman in a quiet voice in low tones, clearly not wanting the conversation to carry beyond the bounds of the room. “Is there anything about this young man’s condition that you think I had ought to know, anything that may make him more vulnerable to complications”  
Susie drew in a deep breath and James gave her a kind smile “please Mrs Wolff it is very important that we know”  
Susie nodded gathering her composure again before speaking “Kimi has vocal cord paralysis, one of his vocal cords cannot move. He finds it difficult to talk. He breathes ok, he’s never had any problems with that at least for the most part, but he cannot talk. He gets chest infections a lot, though rarely does anything for them. I didn’t even know he was sick” she said looking down at the hand that was clasped in hers, she swallowed back tears, not wanting to make an exhibition out of herself; she wanted to be strong for Kimi. Stupid man, why wouldn’t he have told anyone he was unwell, they could have called a doctor sooner.  
Niki nodded and James placed a sympathetic hand on Susie’s shoulder, she smiled gratefully up at him.  
“has he ever had pneumonia before?” asked Niki still wanted more information about what he thought was going to shape up to be a very interesting case indeed.  
Susie nodded “yes” she answered “he was 20 I think, it wasn’t long after he came here, he was thin as a rake, never went near anyone, barely ate a thing. I found him, collapsed in his room. He wouldn’t let me take him to hospital, no matter how hard I tried to convince him that he needed to go, he just wouldn’t listen. Every time that I mentioned it he would try to escape, he would get even paler and try to pull away. Like a little child, a frightened little child, that’s what it made me think of”  
Niki nodded not really understanding the complexity of what Susie was saying but rather thinking that the young woman just needed to tell someone.  
“I took care of him” she said tears running down her face and dripping on to the hand that she had clasped in Kimi’s “he was ok then though, he’ll be ok again won’t he?” she asked looking up at Niki with wide glassy eyes.  
Niki didn’t really want to answer that, not wanting to commit himself to an outcome that may not come to pass, but James was shooting him a look from over the shoulder of Mrs Wolff, clearly wanting him to say something comforting. Instead Niki answered the woman with a simple “I will do everything that I can for him.” neither committing himself to a positive outcome, nor god forbid a negative one.  
Susie understood he thought, she was a sensible woman “you will let me stay with him won’t you, I don’t want to leave him alone”  
James, thankfully got his answer in before Niki could say anything “of course you may stay with him Mrs Wolff, that will be no problem at all will it Niki”   
Niki rolled his eyes at his assistant; James knew that Niki preferred to work alone, hating the pressure of having friends and family in the same room as him while he was trying to work. He supposed that there was nothing he could do about it now so regretfully agreed with James’ statement, besides Mrs Wolff seemed like a sensible sort and who knew maybe it would help his charge to have someone that he knew in the room with him, this woman had helped him see off the illness before, who knew maybe she could help him see if off again.  
Niki pulled out one of Kimi’s arms from underneath the blanket laying it on top of the coverlet while he began the process of setting up an IV line through which he would pump fluids and antibiotics into Kimi’s system. He opted to ignore the milder antibiotics and go in straight for the highest dose that he could reasonably give the man, by the looks of it this was no simple case. Niki was rather perplexed at being asked to attend the needs of a member of household staff, but as James had warned him earlier he had the good sense not to ask any questions.  
James helped his boss set up the IV lines and strapped an oxygen mask over the face of the young man. Kimi had not yet shown any signs of consciousness, which was not a good sign; he looked up at Niki a concerned look on his face. “I know” mouthed Niki at his assistant, though neither of them mentioned it to Susie, this did not look good at all for their charge.  
James nodded at Niki, we will do the best for him that we can, it said, whatever happens we will do our best.  
Susie kept her eyes fixed firmly on Kimi’s face, in search of any movement or recognition of her presence. He’d be ok he had to be, he’d pull through, Kimi was stronger than this she knew it she just knew it. He had to be.   
Kimi, though distant and often by far the grumpiest person that she had ever encountered was like a son to her, the man was 10 years her junior and even at 36 Susie still thought of him as more of a teenager than an adult. And lord love him didn’t he just have the poor decision making skills of one.   
Niki had finished setting up the IV’s and oxygen and turned back toward the woman sat on the bed, she was clearly lost in her own thoughts. He placed a withered hand on her shoulder calling her attention back to the present.   
She gave him a puzzled look, she looked slightly dazed, mild shock, Niki thought. “The next 48 hours will be essential to his survival; we will stay here until we are sure of his condition. I shall allow the others back into the room now, but do try to keep them quiet”  
Niki and James made their way over to the door that led back into the corridor. “We will be in the room next door, do call us if you require any help and please try to get some rest Mrs Wolff”  
Susie didn’t answer she had gone back to watching her charges face, and under her breath James could hear her muttering “he’ll be ok, he’ll be ok”

***  
Sebastian was wearing a hole in the carpet; he just couldn’t seem to stop pacing up and down the corridor. He had no idea why he cared so much about the well-being of a virtual stranger, but try as he might he couldn’t seem to stop the swirling anxiety in his stomach. He liked Kimi and he thought that Kimi had liked him, he hoped that he had the chance to continue his acquaintance with the man, he hoped the after all of this was over that Kimi wanted to see him again thought he severely doubted it. God he just wanted Kimi to be ok, that was all he wanted.  
The others had been sympathetic to begin with but now the actions of the young prince were starting to wear everyone’s nerves rather thin. Toto, much to the surprise of the others was the first to break.   
“Sebastian Vettel will you just stop, for fucks sake, your destroying of the carpets is not going to make anything better.” He snapped instantly regretting it when he was shot a dirty look by Aimee.  
Aimee was stood flattened against the door as close to it as she could without looking like she was eavesdropping on what was going on inside the room, which she clearly was. She had not been at all happy about being told to leave the room by the grumpy doctor and Toto thought that if Valtteri hadn’t all but dragged her out she would have staged a loud protest in the middle of the room.  
Sebastian was stood staring at Toto completely dumfounded when the door to the room where Kimi was being kept opened, the two doctors walking out. The occupants of the hallway spun to face them curious and concerned looks on each one of their faces.  
“he’s asleep” said James, the older doctor at his back decided to keep quiet, knowing that James was far better at defusing and controlling situations like this, people seemed to get angry with him far less than they seemed to do with Niki.  
“The next 48 hours will determine whether or not we will lose him” said James keeping his voice low.  
“Shouldn’t we take him to a hospital?” asked Toto wondering why no one had suggested what seemed the only logical decision to him.  
James shook his head “there’s not much that a hospital can do for him at this point that we cannot do here, if he gets worse we may have to but it’s entirely possible that the stress of moving him may do more harm than good”  
Toto nodded differing to their understanding.  
“Can we go in?” asked Sebastian in a small voice.   
Niki nodded “you may but keep it down ok, Kimi needs his rest”  
Toto herded the others into the room, they made their way in all excepting Minttu, who with a small nod toward Toto decided to make herself scarce disappearing down the corridor in a swirl of black fabric and dark hair.  
Sebastian sat on the bed next to Kimi on the other side to Susie taking Kimi’s other hand. The others settled into the remaining chairs around the room. It seemed to go unsaid that they would be waiting out the night with their friend, and maybe when Kimi woke he would realise that he wasn’t nearly as alone as he thought he was.  
***  
The night melted into the early hours of the morning and Kimi had yet to wake, all of the occupants of the room; excepting Sebastian and Aimee, who were sat on the window seat overlooking the grounds below; had also fallen into slumber.  
Sebastian turned from the window to look at Aimee, dark circles formed under her eyes and like Sebastian it was clear that she had been crying.  
“When Kimi wakes up” said Sebastian his words sounding surer of this than he himself felt “I want you to help me learn sign language, I want to talk to him. Maybe it’d be a nice surprise for him for us all to learn, what do you think?” he asked  
Aimee smiled at the young prince “yes” she said “I think that would be a very good idea indeed your majesty”


	13. a one sided conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tot and susie are everyone parents and Niki is just a grumpy old man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another chapter everyone, becouse i have no social life.

The first 48 hours had passed and Kimi had neither gotten worse nor seemed to be getting any better. Susie and the others had been very worried about this and Toto had gotten even more persistent about taking Kimi to a hospital. Niki had gotten irritated at that, thinking that Toto had some hell kind of nerve to insult the abilities of the king private physicians. James had taken over at that point, deciding it was better that he dealt with Kimi’s worried friends rather than the irritable Niki. James had explained to his friend that the questioning of his ability was down to worry and nothing more, Niki had calmed down at that, as always willing to listen to James where he would have never listened to anyone else.  
Though Kimi had not seemed to get any worse neither of the two doctors seemed at all willing to take of the oxygen mask that was strapped over Kimi’s face. James noted that young prince that up until now he had hardly a good word for never left the sight of the older man, for that matter he very rarely even took his eyes of Kimi.  
James wondered at who this man was and why the young prince was so very interested in him, to his eyes there where many pieces of a puzzle out here before him and none of them seemed to be adding up very well at all. He was beginning to think that he may very well need to speak to Minttu about this. James knew Minttu by reputation; she called herself a matchmaker though James rather thought that she had better claim to the disruption of spy.  
Sebastian had remained in the corner of the room curled up on the window seat with Aimee, neither of them had left the room for longer than 10 minutes for the past 48 hours and had seemed to attach themselves to each other as they waited anxiously for any sign that Kimi may be getting better. Aimee for her part had decided that she rather liked Sebastian and when (not if) when Kimi woke up she would join Minttu in the persuasion of Kimi and Sebastian that they were very good matches indeed for each other.  
Sebastian it turned out was a rather fast learner, within a matter of hours he was able to understand the basic signs that Aimee was teaching him, even if he did struggle on how to do them himself. He supposed that it was however more important that he could understand the signs the Kimi would use rather than the other way round. Aimee would often laugh at his attempts to do the signs himself but for the most part she was kind and encouraging, though she had hit him round the head several times when he had gotten the signs disastrously wrong.  
She explained that while it was most important that Sebastian understood Kimi’s signs, she also had stated that Kimi enjoyed conversation in sign language. This was not only because Kimi was not a fan of talking in general, she suspected it was also because vocal conversation reminded Kimi of his difficulties in said area.  
Niki and James after realising that none of the occupants of the room where not going to leave the place of their own volition had begun imposing shift patterns for the group allowing only two of them in the room at any one time and instructing the others to get sleep in the times that they were not allowed in. This seemed to be working for most of them though Aimee and Sebastian had proved particularly difficult to not only remove from the room but to keep out of there.  
***  
Minttu didn’t like to make mistakes and she didn’t like to be the last person to know things. She had over these past few days gotten the impression that she was rather out of the loop. She had the resolved to find out as much about Kimi Raikkonen as was physically possible and if she had to break into the vaults of the British government then so be it. Minttu virtannen was nothing if not determined.  
It appeared from the records at the estate that Kimi Raikkonen had simply appeared out of the ether, there was no record of him before his arrival at the estate and he had given no references as to any prior employment. She wondered at how he had been employed in the first place, who after all would hire a grounds keeper that had simply appeared out of the middle of nowhere.  
She read to the end of his file that she had stolen from Toto’s office, hoping to find out that very piece of information. Most of Kimi’s employment file had been left blank and Minttu wondered that if might just be deliberate.  
At the end of the file Minttu Virtannen found the information that she had been looking for and found herself more than a little surprised, it appeared that someone extremely important had Kimi’s back. She folded up the file and slid it into her brown satchel bag. It appeared that someone had been holding out on her, that of course was not a shock Minttu knew that everyone had secrets, the shock was who.  
Minttu stood glancing down at her watch, 7am, she smiled, she would find her victim now, and nobody had the presence of mind to come up with convincing billshit at that time of the morning.  
***  
Kimi’s eyes felt as if they had been glued together and he felt as if someone had poured sand down his throat.  
He tried to pry his eyes apart from each other but even that small action seemed to take almost all of his energy. His chest felt as if someone was sitting on it, he felt absolutely fucking terrible. He managed to finally peel his eyes open. The room was dark but he could see two figures asleep on the window seat illuminated by a small lamp.  
Aimee and Sebastian, he smiled slightly before falling back to sleep.  
***  
The next time that Kimi woke up the room was occupied by Susie and Toto, both of whom appeared to be having a rather intense conversation about whether or not Scotland would be an acceptable location to go camping in. Susie seemed to think that it would be fine while Toto sounded like he would rather stick bamboo shoots up his fingers than do such a ridiculous thing.  
Kimi gave a small cough to get their attention. Susie nearly jumped out of her skin, spinning to face Kimi with a look of relieved shock upon her face.  
“Oh god” she breathed “I can’t believe it, you’re ok”  
She flew across the room and flung herself at Kimi covering his weak body with hers, Kimi shocked by this simply moved one abnormally heavy hand to pat her awkwardly on the back.  
Toto moved to stand by the bed a smaller more reserved look of happiness on his face “welcome back” he said  
Susie was sobbing in earnest now and Kimi was at a complete loss of what to do about that. Toto god bless him came to his rescue saying “Susie darling, I think Kimi might like something to drink, don’t you”  
Susie nodded jumping up from the bed and scurrying over to a bowl in the corner of the room “yes, yes of course” she picked up the bowl and came back over to the bed. “Sorry” she said by way of explanation of the bowl she held “you’re only allowed ice chips at the moment”  
She passed the bowl over to her husband “here you give him a few of these I need to find Niki and James and tell them that there charge has awoken.” She took Kimi’s hand in hers squeezing it with a smile on her face “it’s good to have you back Kimi, you giant idiot.”  
Kimi smiled back at her and watched as she left the room, Toto took Susie’s spot on the bed running an ice chip gently over Kimi’s lips until the parted. Kimi’s tongue shot out to capture the moisture of his lips sighing in relief as it slid down his parched throat.  
Toto smiled at him as he popped another ice chip into Kimi’s mouth “don’t you think that you’ve gotten away with this you know, Susie is going to give you a right hiding when you are back to your normal self”  
Kimi wasn’t sure exactly what Toto was referring to but he thought he had better not argue, he just nodded in agreement to whatever it was that Toto was saying, after all if he argued Toto might take the ice chips away.

Susie came back a few minutes later two unfamiliar men in tow and trailing after them where Aimee and surprisingly Sebastian also.  
The elder of the two men, with the scars and the blading head simply went over to the monitors on the side of Kimi’s bed only sparing Kimi a small glance as he did so. The other man a blond of a similar age broke into a wide grin that seemed to stretch almost from one side of his face to the other. Kimi was not entirely sure if he felt comforted or disconcerted by this if he was being honest.  
The blond haired man introduced himself and the other man as Kimi’s doctors. Kimi was rather perplexed by this wondering why everyone had gone to so much apparent trouble for him. while the two doctors where pocking and prodding Kimi and looking over various monitors and charts Aimee sat down of the bed beside her friend, taking up a great deal of the pillows that had been set up on the bed for Kimi.  
She grinned at him singing ** “you’re a fucking idiot you do know that right” **  
Kimi smiled at her albeit a rather weak one, he seemingly couldn’t even muster up the strength of sign a response back at his friend and if he knew Aimee at all she would enjoy taking advantage of this.  
** “we had to run around in the freezing rain looking for you, you complete shit, you’ll be lucky if we don’t all decide that you’ll be locked up in your room for the rest of your life, god dam idiot.” ** She lent her head on top of Kimi’s  
“Don’t you ever do anything like that again, agreed?”  
Kimi nodded, agreed he thought to himself.  
There one way conversation was interrupted by Niki, who coughed rather pointedly drawing everyone’s attention to him, he addressed Kimi first.  
“Firstly young man you have been unconscious for almost 4 days that’s why you feel so shit” he said bluntly “you had pneumonia” he raised one slim eyebrow “I take it you do not take good care of yourself”  
Kimi gave a one armed shrug that drew a small almost imperceptible smile from Niki.  
“You’ll take about 5 weeks to recover and if I find you have left this bed before 3 weeks was passed I shall have one of your friends tie you to it” concluded Niki  
Kimi winced just what the hell was he supposed to do with himself for 3 weeks. He glanced toward Sebastian who was twisting his hands round and round each other.  
Aimee’s glance flicked between the two of them and a small smile flickered over her face. “we’ll keep you company won’t we Sebastian”  
Seb nodded hurriedly, and Kimi grinned, he felt rather pleased at the thought that the young prince had been so concerned about his welfare and even more pleased that the said prince wanted to spend more time with him.  
Sebastian took the seat next to the bed his fingers stretched over the soft linin as if he wanted to take Kimi’s hand but didn’t quite have the nerve to do so. Kimi shrugged what the hell he thought to himself and reached out to take Sebastian’s hand. He was rewarded by a wide grin that spread over Sebastian’s face. Hell maybe 3 weeks in bed wouldn’t be so terrible after all  
***  
Minttu made her silent way down a twisting corridor, her stiletto heels making almost no noise on the thick carpet. She placed one manicured hand upon the door that she had been locking for, she pushed it open stepping into the darkened room.  
There was a man sat at the desk who looked up as Minttu entered the room. Minttu placed one elegant hand upon her waist assuming a position of displeasure.  
She tilted her head at the man “I do believe that you have being lying to me”


	14. he'd put this right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kimi should not be allowed to make descions and minttu find out who he really is

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im baaaaack sorry for the long wait ive been so busy, also thank you all for your comment and kudos i love you guys

Sebastian was fairly sure that Kimi was laughing at him but he found that he didn’t really care Kimi had a nice laugh. It was soft and breathy and made Sebastian’s stomach do cartwheels. Sebastian was still trying to get to grips with all of the signs that he had been taught over the past few days and attempting to wheedle out the cuss words that Aimee had taught him.  
He had realized that after a while Aimee had gotten bored of teaching properly and had begun to sneak cuss words into her teaching, and had told him that phrases like “fuck you” meant good morning. Kimi seemed to think that this was hilarious; Sebastian who was trying to impress Kimi with his new found skill did not.  
Kimi had been improving well and Sebastian was no longer worried that the other man might drop dead without warning; he still had to be on oxygen as he slept and Niki would scream at him every time that he tried to leave the bed but in whole he was beginning to feel much more like his normal self.  
Sebastian had barely left his side he often fell asleep on the pillows beside Kimi or in the chair next to Kimi’s bed, though Kimi much preferred it when Sebastian would fall asleep in the bed. In his sleep Sebastian would roll from the edge of the bed where he would originally fall asleep to right up against Kimi. He would wrap his arms around Kimi like an octopus and would grumble in his sleep whenever Kimi would try to remove one or both of his arms from their crushing grasp.  
Kimi, who had to begin with, thought that he would after a while find the princes endless enthusiasm annoying had discovered that he found it really rather endearing. Every now and again Niki would insist that Sebastian would sleep in his own room, but the bed would feel oddly cold and lonely without Sebastian in it.  
He had once, after Niki had given him some rather strong medicine, made the mistake of telling Sebastian this, contrary to Kimi’s expectation Seb hadn’t laughed at this. He had rather told Kimi about the maze of secret passageways that ran throughout the castle and told Kimi that there was one that connected all of the rooms on this floor. Sebastian had taken to using it to sneak back into Kimi’s room whenever Niki made him leave. James of course had sussed this out but had decided to let it lie; it wasn’t as if having Sebastian in the room was doing any harm.  
***  
Kimi smiled at Sebastian. ** “perhaps you should stop asking Aimee to teach you signs. That girl has a rather potty mouth”**  
Sebastian grinned ** “I can” ** he paused he couldn’t remember the sign for tell he screwed up his eyes opting instead to just spell it out ** “ t,e,l,l.”**  
Kimi smiled kindly at him taking Sebastian hands in his. Sebastian’s heart sped up and he was sure that his hands had gone rather unattractively clammy. Sebastian vaguely noted that Kimi was attempting to show him the sign for “tell” manipulating Sebastian’s hands with his own, but Sebastian could barely think. The only thing that seemed to register was that Kimi was holding his hands in his larger calloused ones, he looked up from where their hands where clasped together to glance up at Kimi who was watching him with a small smile on his face.  
Kimi took his hands away from Sebastian’s ** “see something you like” ** he said  
Sebastian reached out a hand to run it over Kimi’s face it was rough with stubble having barely shaved this past week, but Sebastian found that he didn’t care. He liked the feeling of it under his fingers. Kimi smiled beneath his touch. Sebastian’s fingers strayed lower caressing the softer skin beneath Kimi’s chin.  
The moment stretched on, neither man keen to break the glass-like silence that had settled over the room. Sebastian inched closer, wondering where this courage was coming from. His face was inches from Kimi’s and he could feel Kimi’s breath on his face, soft and warm and still scented with the musk of the coffee that Sebastian had snuck into the room earlier that day.  
Kimi’s eyes had clouded over with desire and his heart was attempting to break its way out of his chest. God he had never wanted anything more than to take Sebastian’s neck and pull him into a mind blowing kiss, and hear Sebastian moan in pleasure aa he slid his tongue between his plump lips.  
Sebastian was looking at him expectantly clearly hoping that Kimi had more nerve than he had. Kimi took a deep breath scooting back ward on this bed before he could do something stupid like snog the crown prince senseless, or with any luck do far more than just kiss him.  
He raised his hands slowly already regretting what he was going to say, but needs must he told himself. ** “I think that you should go Sebastian” ** he said his heart sinking at the way Sebastian’s face fell and his eyes dropped from Sebastian’s face.  
** “why” ** Seb signed “what did I do wrong” he said no longer possessing the presence of mind to remember how to say any of this in sign language “what did I do” he reached out a hand to grab Kimi’s but Kimi pulled it away.  
Sebastian’s eyes welled up with tears and Kimi’s stomach twisted guiltily, he hated himself for this but it had to be done.  
** “just go Sebastian, and don’t come back. I’m not who you think I am this was never a good idea. I’m not who you think I am” **  
Sebastian got up backing away from the bed “I don’t understand” his eyes that had welled up with tears now began to overflow. “No wait, you don’t understand. How can you not be who I think you are when you won’t tell me fuck all about yourself? Every time I ask something you find an excuse not to tell me. I’m not as stupid as everyone seems to think I am. I can tell when I am being lied to, I can tell when people are hiding things from me. You’re not who I think you are? What the hell is that even supposed to mean. You know what screw this, I don’t care Kimi ok.” He gave Kimi a furious look “I don’t care.”  
Kimi still wouldn’t raise his eyes from his hands that where balled into fists in his lap ** “please just go”**  
Sebastian’s face scrunched up “fuck you Kimi Raikkonen” he tossed over his shoulder as he fled the room.  
******  
Norbert Vettel watched the young woman with interest, she was frighteningly intelligent he thought. He was considering hiring her, for what he didn’t know, but he was sure that he’d feel better if she was on his pay roll as opposed to someone else’s.  
“so what exactly would you like to know” he asked cautiously  
“you hired Kimi without any references, without any record of who the hell his was. He could have been an assassin for all you knew “she said  
Norbert was about to comment on this when Minttu continued “so I can only draw the conclusion that you must have known him” she coked her head “or known his family.”  
Norbert nodded seeing no reason to deny it “indeed, Kimi is not a humble groundskeeper. He is the son of a duke, my best friend to be precise.”  
Minttu raised an eyebrow the only sign that she was in any way shocked by this revaluation.  
“Kimi’s parents where killed in a car accident when he was 7 years old and the estate passed to him. He was due to inherit it fully when he was 18, but he had disappeared. Usually the estate would either be passed to another living relative, the Raikkonens had none, so in which case the estate would be taken by the crown and subsequently dissolved, the land redistributed. But I could not do that, not to the son of my friend I held the estate and when this young man appeared seemingly out of the middle of nowhere I asked him if he wanted his home back. He said that he didn’t, that it was not his home any more. He said that I could do with it what I pleased” Norbert sighed “I kept the estate, paid some people to keep it up, it stands to this day, and I hope that one day Kimi may change his mind. Though I doubt it.”  
Minttu nodded taking Norbert’s confession in with calm “that makes sense,”  
“hmm” Norbert said, not having the slightest clue what it was that apparently made sense.  
Minttu did not seem inclined to explain her thought processes to the king however, simply continuing “Kimi doesn't know you still have the estate does he?”  
Norbert shook his head “no he does not, I hope one day he may change his mind but as it stands he wishes to be nothing more than to be a nobody.”  
Norbert looked up from his desk to survey the young woman who was taking all this in without blinking. “Don’t you dare tell my son, this is Kimi secret to tell or not”  
Minttu stood “I will not tell him your majesty” she left the room leaving a rather worried looking Norbert vettel to his thoughts.  
Perhaps she wouldn’t tell Sebastian but she had made no such promise about Aimee.  
****  
Aimee reached out to smack the back of her friends head.  
** “you absolute fucking idiot, what the hell is wrong with you, my god!” **  
Kimi rubbed the back of his head ** “Jesus woman never mind me, what is wrong with you” **  
Aimee gave him an incredulous look ** “what is wrong with me?? God you have some nerve. It’s you that’s the problem Mr. You have an uncanny knack for self-sabotage Kimi Raikkonen.”**  
Kimi had at least the good grace to look apologetic ** “what was I supposed to say, sorry Seb I’m not an heir I’m your groundskeeper. I can only imagine how badly that would have gone down.” **  
Aimee gave him a dubious look ** “about as well as your rather cheesy I’m not who you think I am speech. Come on Kimi could you at least be a little more creative with your self-pity.”**  
Kimi gave her a dirty look ** “you were listening in weren’t you” **  
She shrugged completely unabashed ** “ knew you’d do something stupid sooner or later, had to know when so I could get on with its damage control”** she smiled at him her expression going from mocking to kind ** “look Kimi, if he really has the feelings for you that he thinks he does , he won’t care what your past is, he won’t care if you have one dollar in your account or a thousand. And if he does, if he is more concerned about that stuff than you, and how brilliant and stupid and loving you are, then I’ll admit I was wrong about him and ill kick his ass for you”**  
She got up from the bed ** “I’ll find him and send him to you and you’ll apologize profusely for being such a douche, agreed” **  
She left the room shooting a wide grin back over her shoulder. Kimi watched her go, he doubted that she’d find Sebastian; he suspected that if he wanted to Sebastian could disappear just as effectively as Kimi could. He pushed himself up from the bed not liking how much effort it took to accomplish that simple task. Instead Kimi slipped on some pants and went in search of Sebastian, willing to accept that for once he had been very wrong indeed.  
Aimee was right about the self-sabotage. If anything telling Sebastian about who he really was would solve the question of whether or not the stupid boy really liked him. He was shaking with the effort it took to reach the end of the corridor but he pushed his exhaustion back he’d find Sebastian. He’d put this right.


	15. i promise i'll stay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kimi and seb finally make some progress and seb gets frosty hair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im sorry i keep hurting them im sorry

Sebastian was perched high up in a silver birch. It had thick trunks and had been great for climbing when valtteri and he where little, this tree had been their favourite and they had often hidden high up in its perches whenever royal duties called. Sebastian ran his fingers over the names engraved in the trunk, Val’s and his, written in a messy childish sprawl. Sebastian smiled at the memory, no one had ever been able to find them up here no matter how hard they tried and Seb and Val had managed to get out of almost all of their duties by hiding up here, much to their mother and fathers irritation. No one would be able to find him up here he thought to himself, he doubted even Val would, he thought that perhaps Val no longer remembered this tree. Neither of them mentioned it any more, the ease of childhood fancies and fun having been swallowed up by the burdens of adult life.  
He thought back to what Kimi said, that he wasn’t who Seb though he was, it didn’t make sense, like so much about Kimi he supposed. There where so many pieces that just didn’t add up, along with the ever present feeling that no one was telling the truth. But the thing was Sebastian just didn’t care who Kimi was, Kimi treated him like he was a real person. He told Seb lewd jokes and poked fun at him, he made Sebastian’s stomach flip every time he smiled, he made Sebastian feel like he mattered. When he was with Kimi the crushing weight of the looming royal duties didn’t feel quite so all consuming. Kimi made him feel like he could conquer the world.  
He would go back in a bit he thought to himself, try to talk some sense into Kimi or get him at least to tell him whatever it was that he was hiding from Seb. Sebastian frowned, thinking rather astutely, that Kimi seemed to be ashamed of something, when he had told Sebastian he wasn’t who Seb thought he was, he had looked ashamed. Seb winced he really hoped that Kimi wasn’t hiding anything to horrible, like well, being a murderer or something, because Sebastian thought that he was well on his way to falling in love Kimi.  
Hell who was he kidding in these past 2 weeks he had fallen head over heels in love with Kimi, falling for him in such a way that until recently he had not thought possible. Sebastian didn’t think he had ever felt so much like a teenage girl in his entire life. He would do quite frankly anything to see Kimi smile, to hear him laugh, he was seriously screwed because Kimi had made quite clear that there was no way that he would ever feel the same way about Sebastian. Maybe Kimi was just making excuses to throw Sebastian of his case, hoping that he could reject the Prince in a polite way. That made sense thought Sebastian; he had always been punching above his weight with Kimi.  
He swallowed around the lump in his throat trying to ignore the treacherous moisture on his cheeks, trying to pretend that even just the thought of Kimi not wanting him didn’t tear his heart to shreds. He angrily wiped away the tears that made their tracks down his face and leaned his head back against the trunk of his favourite tree. He looked out through its branches the half light of the winters afternoon filtering through them, when all of this was over he’d go away somewhere. He’d get away from this estate and all the heart break he had suffered here, he would go somewhere warm he thought to himself, Spain perhaps, he’d buy a house there maybe, and try to pretend that he had never set eyes on one Kimi Raikkonen.  
It was a little self-indulgent but hell he was a Prince was he not entitled to a little indulgence even if said indulgence was in self-pity.  
He choked out a sob he wished he had never met Kimi Raikkonen because this hurt, this hurt too much.  
***  
Kimi hated staircases. He really hated staircases. He was currently sat directly in the middle of one of the largest staircase known to man and he felt positively wretched. He was starting to think that he should have just stayed in bed and waited for Aimee to find Sebastian, that or waited for the lingering cold to smoke Sebastian out of his hiding place somewhere in the grounds.  
He could not for the life of him summon up the energy to stand back up again, his whole body ached and his hands where trembling. He was absolutely frozen having forgotten to grab a coat on his way out, he thought vaguely that if Niki found him like this he would skin him alive.  
For once though the house was still and quite, it was a Wednesday afternoon and as Kimi was beginning to realize nothing ever happens on a Wednesday afternoon. His chest ached as another cough wracked through him; this was definitely a mistake there was no way his was well enough to be doing this.  
He had but 3 options:  
1 he wait here and hope someone would come across his wretched form  
2 slide down his bum to the bottom of the stair case like a 3 year old  
Or  
3 crawl back up the stairs.  
He wondered which would be the least embarrassing, he had just decided on the second option when the doors to the main hall where flung open and a furious form was illuminated in the doorway.  
Kimi swallowed “hi” he said.  
***  
Sebastian sighed, it was time to pull himself together and go and pack, and flee the country as quickly as possible. The winter air was curling around him turning his body to ice and freezing the tear tracks on his face. He had indulged himself in sadness and self-pity for long enough and now he was beginning to freeze to death.  
He swung himself down from the tree wincing at how stiff his limbs had become sitting up in a tree in the middle of November. He reached a hand up to touch his hair it felt rather as if the frost had already begun to coat it, he sighed he really did need to go inside if he spent much more time up here he didn’t think he’d be able to get down without the aid of a pick axe.  
He jumped back down onto the frozen ground. As he had sat up in the tree a thick fog and formed over the lake and the tell-tale signs of a winter where already visible over the grasses around the pond. Sebastian drew in a deep breath even the air had the scent of winter on it, the crisp clear scent making him think that snow was for sure on its way.  
He trudged back up to the house wondering vaguely if he should tell Kimi that he was leaving the country, no he surmised, fuck him, if he wanted Sebastian gone then Seb would go, he didn’t deserve to know where Seb was going, let him draw his own conclusions for all Seb cared.  
The great house was illuminated like a ship on water, the hill that it stood on hidden by the fog, it looked like a ship lost at sea, Seb thought it looked beautiful, haunting but beautiful.  
He stood watching it for a while before summoning up the courage to go inside, he placed his hand on the door and pushing it open, and he was met with one of the biggest shocks of his life.  
***  
“Hi”  
All thought of how hurt he was by Kimi’s rejection of him flew from his head, he was absolutely furious, just what the hell did Kimi think he was playing at, sat in the middle of the staircase looking frozen in nought but a thin night shirt and pants. Kimi looked washed out and pale and it was clear even from where Sebastian was standing that he was shaking with exhaustion. Goddam stupid man, Sebastian had never been more angry with anyone in his life was Kimi actively trying to Kill himself because he was doing a very good job of it.  
Sebastian rushed up the stairs pulling of his coat as he did so, draping it over Kimi’s shoulders when he reached him.  
“You blithering idiot, what the fuck are you doing, just what in gods name is wrong with you. Do you really want to die that badly because I’m this close to throwing you out of a window for your stupidity. Jesus Christ Kimi.” He voice shook with emotion as he reached to take one of Kimi’s hands in his. This time Kimi didn’t pull away and Seb began to attempt to rub some warmth into Kimi’s icicle like limbs.  
“Fucking hell Kimi, what is wrong with you, “he sighed “do you think that you can stand?” he asked his tone softened a little realizing how wretched Kimi looked.  
Kimi shook his head “with help?” asked Sebastian  
** “maybe” ** said Kimi  
“ok” Seb placed his hand underneath Kimi’s armpits haling him to his feet, Kimi swayed a little and his eyes fluttered like he was about to lose consciousness. He took several slow blinks before smiling at Seb.  
“ok” Seb asked  
Kimi nodded and Sebastian began to half drag him up the stairs Kimi stumbled on a few but with the help of Sebastian he managed to keep his footing for the most part. He was shivering, cold and exhausted by the time Seb and he reached the top of the stairs. Sebastian was taking almost all of his weight by now and by some herculean effort Sebastian managed to get Kimi back into his room and lay him down on his bed. He searched around for the oxygen mask strapping it over Kimi’s face. Kimi sighed in finally able to draw breath again with ease was a great relief.  
Sebastian stepped away from the bed apparently he had no intention of staying with him not that Kimi blamed him, he had been truly terrible to Sebastian he didn’t blame him for not wanting to spend not another moment in Kimi’s presence.  
Sebastian took in a deep breath “I’m going away now, I hope you get better soon Kimi I really do but you clearly don’t feel the same way about me as I do about you and I won’t embarrass myself any more than I already have. I am moving away, you won’t see me again.” He turned his back to Kimi slowly walking from the room his feet feeling as heavy as led.  
He ignored the rustling of the sheets refusing to give Kimi the last look that he so desperately wanted to, he had never wanted to do anything less, he didn’t want to leave Kimi, every cell in his body seemed to rebel even at the very thought of it.  
“No” came a voice raspy and monotone, quiet and filled with pain “sorry” Sebastian spun around in surprise. Kimi had taken the oxygen mask off and was looking at Sebastian earnestly. His face scrunched up with the effort it was clearly taking him to even say those two words. Sebastian’s mouth was open in surprise. Kimi winced and a cough tore through him bending him double he curled over in pain gasping for air.  
Sebastian dashed across the room forcing the oxygen mask back over Kimi’s face. Kimi pushed his hand away looking at Sebastian earnestly he had to say this he had to make sure that Sebastian understood.  
“Please stay” he managed the two words hurting like hell.  
Sebastian’s heart clenched at the sight of Kimi’s pain. “Ok” he said shoving the mask back over Kimi’s mouth this time Kimi allowed it “I’ll stay” he pushed Kimi back onto the bed, Kimi was far too exhausted to protest.  
Kimi raised his hands ** “promise” ** he signed  
“promise” said Seb “I’ll stay with you”


	16. he couldn't wait for kimi to see it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kimi comes clean wires are crossed and seb goes to see an old house

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> who just wishes these guys would stop beating around the bush already

To say that Niki Lauda was angry when he had found out what had happened to his charge, in the short time it had taken him to go to the hospital to get more supplies, would have been the understatement of the century. Actually had James and Aimee not been there he may very well have killed Kimi instead of curing him.  
He had instead of committing homicide, spent the past half an hour cussing colourfully in German over the incompetence of almost every person who resided within the house. James had thought it rather more amusing than Niki had, and after Niki had stormed out of the room (after making sure that Kimi was ok that is) James thought it prudent to give Kimi some advice.  
James glanced at Kimi over one of the monitors that Niki had insisted where reinstalled due to “Mr Raikkonens apparent death wish”. Niki had even suggested putting CCTV in the room so he could catch Kimi out the next time he tried to escape, but even James had drawn a line at that.  
Sebastian had been ushered out of the room at Niki’s insistence but James was more than aware that there was no way that Sebastian had gone much further than the doorway and probably (if James knew anything at all) had his noisy ears pressed against the keyhole.  
“You know” James said drawing Kimi attention “I can see the cogs turning in your head, he won’t care. I think you could grow a second head, and it be purple, and Sebastian Vettel would still think that you were the best thing to have ever graced god’s green earth.”  
Kimi raised an eyebrow at him wondering what on earth he was talking about, and also wondering how it was that James seemed to know exactly what was going on.  
James smiled indulgently at his charge “I have got eyes Raikkonen, I can see how you two look at each other, and all I can say is uncross those wires mate, tell him the truth, listen to your little red haired friend, she’s a wise one” he stepped back from the monitors giving Kimi an assessing look. “Do you want me to let him back in?”  
Kimi nodded not saying any more he didn’t think that James knew any sign language and he was dammed if he was going to say anything else for at least a month.  
James pulled open the door and into the room tumbled Sebastian, his hair rumpled and a look of shock on his face at being caught out eavesdropping. James grinned his eyes darting between the younger men “I’ll leave you two to it then shall I” he said exciting the room, though he was almost certain that no one was listening to him anymore.  
Sebastian slid gingerly onto the bed just out of arms reach of Kimi and Kimi not having the energy to do much about it gave him a hard look patting the space on the bed next to him, Seb gave a small smile and slid up the bed towards Kimi, resting his head on Kimi’s shoulder. Kimi laid a kiss on Seb’s downy curls before patting his hand to draw his attention.  
** “I need to tell you something Seb, you’re a clever man so I suspect you’ve already sussed this out. None of us have been particularly honest with you about this whole thing and particularly about who I am, I really am not who you think I am.” ** He said expecting Sebastian to get at least a little angry and the half repeat of the words from there prior argument but Seb surprised him by just nodding at him and gesturing that Kimi continue.  
** “I am not an heir to a wealthy estate; I am in fact your groundskeeper. Nothing more, not anymore. Maybe I was more but I am not now.”** Kimi looked up from the bed sheets that he was begging to pluck a hole through out of nervousness.  
His stomach set to led at the expression on Sebastian’s face. Seb was looking at him in complete shock and he had slid on the bed away from Kimi. ** “what, I don’t understand, you work for me?” **  
Kimi shrugged this seemed to be going south even quicker that he had predicted It would ** “technically I work for your family” **  
Sebastian seemed to be frozen on the spot and Kimi was really wishing that he felt well enough to make a strategic exit, with the way the he felt right now the best he would be able to manage would be sliding out of the room on his ass. Not exactly dignified.  
** “I expect that this is the last that I will see of you then”** signed Kimi regretting now that he had followed the advice of his ill-informed friends.  
** “maybe you were once, what is that supposed to mean?” ** asked Sebastian he looked confused now, at least that was an improvement on looking like he never wanted to see Kimi ever again.  
Kimi sighed, well in for a penny in for a pound, he supposed ** “my father was a duke, he died when I was little and I never claimed the estate, it was dissolved shortly after my eighteenth birthday. So Like I said I am just a groundskeeper.”**  
Sebastian brushed his hand over Kimi’s that was laying on top of the coverlets but not in such a way that made Kimi think that Sebastian wanted him to take it. Sebastian smiled softly at Kimi leaning over to lay a soft kiss on Kimi’s cold forehead before sliding of the bed.  
** “I have to go, I need to do something” ** he said making his way over toward the door.  
Kimi watched Sebastian go as his heart seemed to turn to stone, heavy and cold in his chest. The door closed behind Sebastian and Kimi slid down the silk pillows to curl himself into a tight ball and when he was sure that Sebastian would be out of earshot he began to cry. Damn Minttu and her stupid fucking matchmaking, why the hell would a prince want a groundskeeper and fuck his friends for thinking that Seb wouldn’t care. God this hurt god this hurt like hell, he had thought that Sebastian cared it appeared that he had been mistaken.  
***  
Sebastian bounded up the stairs toward his father’s office with a wide grin on his face. If anyone could help with this it would be his father Norbert it seemed knew almost everything that was useful to know.  
Sebastian burst into his father office flinging the door open “father!”  
Norbert looked up from an abnormally large stack of paper work to face his son who had a look of flushed excitement on his face. “Sebastian?” his father phrased the statement as a question “to what exactly do I owe this pleasure my son”  
It was not often that either of his children came to speak to him these days Sebastian preferring to keep his concerns to himself and Val preferring to keep the company of his friend’s and recently the company of a red haired servant girl.  
Sebastian sat down on one of his father’s plush high backed chairs “do you know the Raikkonnen’s, do you know where their estate used to be?”  
His father sighed knowing that this was bound to have come up sooner rather than later seeing as his son was clearly in love with one Kimi Raikkonen.  
“yes in fact I do” he said solemnly standing up from his chair and going over to join his son by the fire. “Very well in fact” he took a deep drag of his cigar as he considered how best to approach this conversation.  
“well, do you know where there estate used to be, I wish to buy back the land and restore the estate for Kimi, I think that would be a lovely early Christmas present do you not think” Sebastian was grinning widely. Norbert thought that he had at least been right in the recommendation of this match to Minttu it was clear that his son was very much in love.  
Norbert tilted his head “I do not think that there will be any need for that” he said carefully his quiet words filling Sebastian expression with bewilderment  
Sebastian looked completely lost with the turn that his conversation appeared to have taken. “Why?” he asked in bemusement  
“because I kept the land, I did not break the estate up, Kimi’s home still stands to this day and I dare say in better condition that this one does” Norbert sighed remembering the things that Val and Sebastian had gotten up to as children, from broken windows to sliding down every banister in the entire house. (Susie and Toto had not been impressed with that at all)  
Sebastian broke into a grin jumping up from his seat to hug his father “may I give the house back to him, may I take him back to it”  
His father laughed “what on earth do you think I kept it for, I could not do any less for my best friends son, Matti asked that I take care of his Kimi, if anything where to ever happen to him” Norbert looked down at his shoes “and for the most part I have done a truly terrible job but this at least I had to do.”  
Sebastian rather thought that he was finding out more about those close to him in one after noon than he had in the rest of his life, he had never thought that he father had had kept so may secrets.  
“I kept the house staff on, kept the house in good condition so everything you may give it back to its rightful owner, tell Kimi that he always had a home” Norbert said with a small smile  
Sebastian ever enthusiastic grinned in response jumping up to hug his father again. “thank you papa, thank you thank you thank you”  
Sebastian dashed out of the room in his usual whirlwind of speed and Norbert leaned his head back against the chair, this Kimi had better have a strong constitution because his son was one hell of a handful.  
***  
Sebastian gave instructions for a car to be set up as soon as possible and was currently hopping form one foot to another half in impatience and half in an attempt to keep himself warm, it really was extremely cold.  
A footman announced that the car was ready for him and Sebastian all but ran down the stairs and into it giving the instructions of where he wanted to go to his elderly driver. Who looked rather put out at being asked to perform his duties.  
The whole drive Sebastian had his face pressed up against the glass waiting to catch a glance of Kimi’s old home. The driver had told him that the location was little more than 40 miles from the palace itself and Sebastian wondered why he had never heard of it before.  
Eventually the small road converged on a set of tall iron gates that had been left open. On each one of the gates was a trident emblem and a letter R emblazoned on it. The driver slowed as they made their way up the gravel driveway that was surprisingly well kept.  
Sebastian draw a gasp as the house came into view over the cusp of the hill. It was ornate and gothic in design with tall reaching towers that grazed the skyline and a large lake that put his own to shame, the lake semi-circled the house like a moat. The building, thought gothic in design, was painted white with green ivy winding its way up it, reminding Sebastian of some kind of fairy castle hidden away from the rest of the world.  
The household staff, though few in number had lined up to greet the prince, Sebastian smiled, yes he said to himself this would be a very lovely Christmas surprise for Kimi indeed.  
He couldn’t wait for Kimi to see it.


	17. in regards to the Sebastian Vettel debacle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> seb explores Kimi's childhood home and Kimi gets kidnapped

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another chapter the day later, don't say that i don't treat you all well i hope you all like this xx

Sebastian was greeted at the door by the skeleton staff that worked the house to keep it in at least a reasonable condition. They were kind and welcoming and seemed just grateful to have someone in the house for once. One of the footmen looked visibly excited at the prospect of making some tea for the Prince.  
Sebastian took the tea downing it in one, before slipping out from under the watchful eye of the servants. He had hoped to get a better look at the house, and maybe with any luck find some pictures of Kimi when he was younger for future bribery.  
The house had clearly been kept in very good condition the banisters polished, and dust free, almost every one of the surfaces clean and unused. Sebastian walked up one of the main staircases in the foyer that was almost as grand as the one in the palace. The wood felt smooth underneath his fingers, in such a way that told him it had been many years since it had been used.  
The house though well heated felt cold, lonely. As if the imprint of the Raikkonen’s family life had long since been removed from it, leaving in its place something remote and almost clinical.  
Leading off from the staircase was a row of rooms, the first few that Seb peered into where well-furnished but lacked the luxuries that would be fitted within the personal chambers of the family that lived here. He turned instead toward the other wing wandering down a slightly wider corridor, fitted with a plush red carpet that despite its quality had signs of use, Sebastian drew the conclusion that this wing of the house then must have been for the personal use of the family.  
He wondered which one of these rooms would have been for the use of the duke’s son; a 7 year old Kimi must have had one of these rooms. Sebastian sighed it was a beautiful house Kimi must have been very happy here, it was a fantastic house, everything that a little boy could have wanted. It hurt Sebastian to think that it had been so cruelly taken away from him.  
Upon further enquiry to his father Sebastian had found that Kimi had been sent, following the deaths of his parents, into the care of an admittedly rather crazy aunt, but had run away when he was but 14 and hadn’t been seen since, until he turned up on the doorstep of the king himself.  
Norbert had tried to find him, he told Sebastian, to offer him a home within the Palace, but had never been able to find him. Sebastian wondered how different everything would be if they had met in different circumstances, maybe grown up together. That would have been nice he thought.  
He rounded a corner heading up a smaller flight of stairs, which he originally thought must have been for the use of servants. He came to the top of the staircase, and emerged into a large room. He frowned what sort of room would be hidden up a small staircase. He ran his hands over the door frame, engraved in the wood where small notches at regular intervals. He leant in closer to inspect it, there where words there…  
Kimi aged 2  
Kimi aged 4  
Kimi aged 5 and a half  
There were a few so faded that Sebastian could not read them but the final one read  
Kimi aged 7.  
Tears sprang to Sebastian’s eyes, so this must have been Kimi’s room, it made sense that Kimi would have chosen a room that was a little out of the way, after all had he not done the same thing as an adult, he felt oddly comforted that this at least was a new trait of Kimi’s. He pushed open the door there was a large bed placed against the windows that looked out over the semi circled moat, beyond that he could see a grand stables, though it did not look like they had seen much use for many a year. Drawn on one of the larger walls where small pictures of ducks and what he thought where Geese, he smiled a little at this.  
It was nice he thought, the servants had never repainted the room or changed it around he surmised, they had rather preserved the room as it had been the day that Kimi had been in it last. He walked over to the bed; there was a thin layer of dust on it and for some reason that made Sebastian sad. On the window sill where a collection of small rocks and sea glass, well-polished, a few painted in vibrant colours.  
On one wall was pinned various pictures that Seb thought that Kimi must have drawn, crude pictures some of which were still among Kimi’s favourite animals. Pinned on one end of the wall was a photo of what Sebastian thought must have been Kimi and his parents. They all had wide smiles on their faces, and someone, he thought that it must have been Kimi’s mother Paula, had written on it…. Together always…. Kimi, mama and papa.  
Sebastian felt tears running down his cheeks and didn’t even bother to brush them away, he would bring Kimi home and he would fill this house with happiness again.  
He ran his hands over the wooden door frame one more time before getting up to leave the house. Just now was the question of how on earth he would he get Kimi to come with him without giving it all away.  
****

Aimee was glaring at Kimi ** “oh will you just stop wallowing in self-pity, it’ll be fun I promise.” **  
Kimi gave her a rather dubious look ** “just how am I supposed to know if it will be when you refuse to tell me what it is you want us to do?” **  
Aimee sighed in irritation ** “god you are such a sour puss Kimi, please”**  
Kimi rolled his eyes at her, there was no way that she was going to let this go until he agreed to do whatever it was she wanted ** “fine, fine, fine. I’ll come with you, you relentless woman. It had better be damn good” **  
She smiled flicking her hair back over her shoulders ** “oh it will be” ** she passed him a blindfold ** “here put this on”**  
Kimi shot her a grin ** “kinky”** he said  
She hit him over the back of the head in response. ** “just put it on asshole” **  
Kimi snorted pulling the eye mask over his face, **”it’s a good job that I really like you” **  
Aimee took his hands pulling him from the bed and leading him across the room. Kimi was not entirely sure why this whole thing required him to have a blindfold in place right from the get go, but it did not seem that Aimee was in the mood to be argued with, so in the end he decided that it would be better for his health if he just went along with whatever hare-brained plan it was she had come up with now. He could only really hope that it didn’t get him fired.  
Aimee opened what sounded like a car door and helped Kimi get into it; she released his hand as soon as he was situated inside the car. He turned to where he hoped Aimee was. ** “if this is some Kind of messed up kidnapping scheme I am going to be so mad.”**  
He heard Aimee laugh softly in the seat beside him and he wondered who exactly was driving. “Just sit back and enjoy the ride, I promise you’re not being kidnapped”

******  
“I need you to kidnap Kimi”  
Aimee looked up in surprise, stood in her doorway was Sebastian. His clothes where rumpled and his curly hair was plastered to his face.  
“Excuse me?” she said not really sure what exactly to make of this, she wondered how exactly it was that the crown prince had found her room high up in the servant quarters. She blushed she rather guessed that Valtteri might be the one to blame for that.  
“I need you to kidnap Kimi.” Said Sebastian again.  
Aimee raised her head to look Sebastian’s eyes “yes I heard, that wasn’t what I was questioning, what exactly do you need me to kidnap Kimi for.”  
Sebastian grinned at her “well” he said launching into an excited explanation and with every word Aimee grew more shocked. Why had Kimi never mentioned this before, she had always had the impression that Kimi was hiding or running from something she supposed that this only confirmed her suspicions. But never the less the son of a Duke, now that had her stumped, she thought it might have been something more mundane like, well accidently running someone over but this, Jesus, no wonder Kimi had been so tight lipped about where it was he had come from.  
“so will you help me” Sebastian asked at last, looking at her with wide expectant eyes and a hopeful look on his face.  
She rolled her eyes at him “I guess so, but I don’t think Kimi is going to be too thrilled about the whole kidnapping thing.”  
Sebastian laughed “I am sure that you will come up with some way to persuade him to come with you.”  
Aimee laughed, she would indeed and hopefully one that would not involve violence.

****  
Kimi tried to relax and enjoy the ride in what was an extremely well balanced car, but he couldn’t seem to stop the tension that was thrumming through his body. For all his joking about being kidnapped he really wanted to know what actually was going on, it was making him nervous and he rather thought that his sadistic best friend was enjoying it.  
“So when exactly where you going to tell me you where the son of a Duke” she said sounding a little peeved  
Kimi shrugged ** “wasn’t planning on at all to be honest” **  
Aimee smacked him over the back of his head “you are a right ass.”  
Kimi shrugged ** “what I was does not matter anymore, I am just a groundskeeper now, not duke, nor am I ever likely to be. Why would I need to go over something that never was? It makes no sense, better to move on” **  
“and pretend it never happed” Aimee said sounding a little dubious, where other people were often too afraid to tell Kimi what they thought of him Aimee never failed to let Kimi know when she thought that he was being an idiot.  
** “something like that” ** he responded, and pretending it never happened was exactly what he was going to do in regards to the whole Sebastian Vettel debacle.  
The car eventually seemed to slow down a little, grating over gravel as it did so. It swung around crunching to a standstill, he felt Aimee get out of the car beside him. She then reached over to take Kimi’s hand helping him out of the care as well.  
He stood awkwardly by the vehicle as Aimee ran on ahead to open what sounded like a door. He leant one hand on the car wondering if he could take the blindfold of now because this was seriously staring to get old.  
He could faintly hear Aimee talking to someone at the top of what he thought was a flight of stairs. Eventually he could hear Aimee or rather Aimee’s high-heels come back down the stairs, followed by someone who had a heavier gait, a man he thought. They both stopped in front of Kimi  
Aimee laughed a little “you can take the blindfold of now if you want”  
Kimi snorted reaching up to pull the eye mask of his face, his eyes took a moment to adjust to the bright light of the crisp winter’s morn. When he had, he drew in a gasp of surprise. Stood in front of him was Sebastian and for some goddamn reason they were in front of Kimi’s childhood home.  
Sebastian smiled at him, his eyes shining “welcome home”


	18. thank you for bringing me home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kimi finally lets go of the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> probably my last chapter guys i planning an epilogue but we are nearing the end thank you to everyone who comments likes and reads this works its been a pleasure writing this and i cant wait to start my next story xxx

“Welcome home”  
** “nope” ** Kimi spun on his heel and marched back towards the car flinging open the door. He was about to get back in and insist that the driver take him back to whence he came when a firm hand grasped his arm spinning him back around.  
Kimi glared at Sebastian who admittedly looked rather confused. ** “let. Me. Go “** Kimi said prying Sebastian’s hand from his arm.  
Sebastian was looking at him with big watery eyes, and for a moment, just for a moment Kimi almost felt guilty for how angry he was with Sebastian right now. “But I thought that you’d be happy, happy to find your home is still here” he said faltering half way through at the sheer ferocity of Kimi’s gaze.  
Kimi snorted at him ** “happy, happy are you fucking kidding me” ** his back was ram rod straight betraying the depth of his ire.  
Sebastian took a step back only just realizing that he may well have seriously misjudged this. ** “I don’t understand” **  
Kimi threw his hands in the air with a feel of exasperation ** “like fuck you don’t, how on earth would you understand something like this, little rich boy, you have no idea, I left this place for a reason you know. It reminds me of everything I lost, it reminds me that I don’t have a family, I don’t have anyone, it reminds me that I don’t belong anywhere. I have nothing. You don’t understand that of course you fucking don’t”**  
Sebastian turned away his shoulders pulled tightly up a look of strain on his body his hands trembling at his sides. “I’m sorry Kimi; I dint mean to make you mad. I thought…. Well I guess I thought wrong….I just wanted to show you that…. That you’re not alone that you belong; you have a home….. And…. And people that love you, I’m sorry…..i….. I” Sebastian’s voice broke then and he ran back up the stairs his hand over his mouths to muffle the sounds of his crying from Kimi.  
He shut the door behind him ripping down the banner he’d made this morning, the bright letters reading WELCOME HOME KIMI laying sadly on the foyer. He ran up the stairs taking them two at a time. He walked blindly until he found himself stood in the doorway to the room that had belonged to Kimi so many years ago.  
He sank to the floor pulling up his knees to his chest; he rested his head on his legs and began to cry. He had desperately wanted to make Kimi happy but it appeared that he could do nothing right whatever he did he just made things worse, he was a nuisance to everybody. He had only wanted to show Kimi that he had always belonged, that even when he thought that he had nothing he had a home, he wanted to show Kimi that he loved him. That he wanted a life with him, dammit why was he so stupid, no wonder Kimi hated him he was nothing but a stupid kid. He knew nothing about anything. He assumed that Kimi has probably left by now, but he’d stay up here a little longer, he wasn’t sure that he could face Kimi again.

****  
Aimee was making a bit of a habit of hitting Kimi over the head and he was not sure that he liked it. She was glaring at him and looking rather like she would like to hit him again.  
** “Jesus Christ Kimi what the hell is wrong with you, can you not see that he was doing something for you. Can’t you see how happy he was to bring you here”** Aimee was furious, Kimi didn’t think that in all of their long years of friendship that he had managed to antagonize her as much as he appeared to have done now.  
He sighed ** “you don’t understand” **  
Aimee threw her hand up into the air ** “because you are the only one who has ever felt pain, oh fuck you Kimi, really. He feels as alone as you do, don’t you see that, he loves you Kimi, though lord knows what you have done to deserve that. He spent days cleaning up the place, he even made you a stupid welcome home banner. He thought you’d be happy. You are both lonely; he thought he could show you that you no longer had to be. And you screwed it up.” **  
Kimi frowned processing her words ** “he loves me” ** apparently that was the only thing that he had taken in.  
She sighed ** “yeah he loves you; you should see the way that he looks at you, like you’re the most beautiful thing that he’s ever seen. Now you march that pretty ass of yours up into that house and you go apologize to him Kimi because I am getting pretty damn tiered of your bullshit.” **  
Kimi nodded she was right. As much as he didn’t want to be here as much as it brought back the pain of the past he understood that Seb had only being trying to make him smile, he had thought that Kimi would want to know that his old home was still here, and damn it all he loved Sebastian too. He had not thought it possible that the Prince, someone as kind and accomplished as Sebastian could love someone as plain as Kimi. Love him despite his many and obvious flaws, love him even though he was grumpy and aloof and as endless evidence seemed to prove almost always said or did entirely the wrong thing. If nothing else he needed to tell Sebastian that he felt the same way about him.  
He placed his hand on the heavy wooden door, feeling the oddly familiar knots and smoothness beneath his fingertips. Despite his shock at first at finding himself here, he felt an odd sense of relief at finding out that this place still stood. Like despite the loss of everything that he had held dear that life did and always would go on, reminding him that good things still remained and that the memories of the golden years, those at least, would never go.  
He pushed the door open and stepped into the foyer, it felt strange to push the door open and not hear his mother calling out to him, welcoming him home, and scolding him about being late. He drew in a deep breath looking about him he saw the banner that Sebastian had made for him all bright letters and glitter. He felt a pang in his chest, Aimee really was right about everything; he had a hell of a talent for messing things up.

He looked about. It felt wrong that the place was so empty, though it was a grand house it was certainly more of a home than a palace. It had always been filled with the laughter of himself as a young boy and that of his parents and friends. It had never been silent; it felt wrong that it was so silent. A family home should be filled with sound, and not just the sound of his harsh breathing and hammering heart.  
He made his way through the house but couldn’t seem to find Sebastian so instead he went in search of his old room. He made his way up the stairs the familiar root brining tears to his eyes, he was surprised that he remembered the exact places to step so that he made no noise going up the stairs; he stopped in the doorway his eyes focusing on the doorframe.  
He remembered how he would stand against it his heels pressed against the wood so he could gain a precious few inches every time. His father would know of course but would laugh and let Kimi get away with it. He would simply mark the spot where Kimi stood and comment on how much taller Kimi had gotten.  
He stepped into the room his throat catching as the memories flooded back, god he had never thought that he would see this place again.  
Sebastian looked up from where he was curled up on the floor “Kimi” he called out  
He watched as the cobwebs cleared from Kimi’s eyes and he registered Sebastian’s presence in the room. Kimi smiled at him. ** “I’m sorry Seb, I’m an ass”**  
Sebastian shook his head “no I’m sorry, I thought it would be a nice surprise but I guess I don’t know anything about these things I should have spoken to you about it first.”  
Kimi came to sit by Seb resting his shoulder against Seb’s. ** “no Seb, don’t apologize, you were right, it is good to see this place again. I thought that I never would” ** he looked about glancing at the wall where his father had always used to pin the pictures that he drew up on. His gaze focused on the picture that his mother had commissioned of the three of them together. It had been taken 4 months before they had died, Kimi’s throat felt fight as he fought not to cry.  
Sebastian noticed Kimi’s gaze and stood, going over to the wall and taking the photo off it placing it in Kimi’s hands. Kimi smiled in thanks, running his fingers over the faces of his mother and father.  
** “I miss them, and I miss this place. I miss having a home”**  
Sebastian took Kimi’s hand in his **“you’ll always have a home, and you’ll always belong”**  
Kimi raised a hand to place a hand against Sebastian’s cheek, rough with a pathetic attempt at stubble. He took a deep breath preparing himself for what he was about to say, he opened his mouth, the words ghosting across his lips, barely more than a whisper but he managed to say them “I love you” his words monotone and painful but Sebastian’s face light up as if he had been given the greatest gift he had ever received.  
He flung his arms around Kimi’s neck, “I love you too, so so much.”  
Kimi kissed him, a searing kiss that said more than words ever could, Sebastian seemed to fit against him like he where a part of him, his lips soft and yielding. They broke away when Kimi needed air. ** “I love you” ** he signed  
Sebastian leaned against him still smiling “I know” he said

They sat there for what felt like hours, watching the sunlight change the patterns from the window and more them across the floor; there legs numb beneath them but neither prepared to move.  
** “what will you do with this place” ** asked Sebastian at last  
Kimi smiled ** “I will keep it I think, I cannot let go off the past but I think it is about time I realized I have more to be thankful for than not. I could never get rid of this place, it means too much to me. Thank your father for keeping it for me, even when I told him so vehemently that I did not want it.” ** He smiled at Sebastian ** “maybe it’s time to make some new memories, new, happy memories, time to make a new life here. Fill this place with noise and joy again, what do you think. Start a life of our own, make this house ours.” ** he winked suggestively at Sebastian.  
Sebastian immediately cottoning on, kissed him fierce and passionate his hands sliding around Kimi’s neck ** “I like that idea very much indeed, just perhaps not in your childhood bedroom that is just a little bit too weird. “ **  
Kimi smiled ** “agreed, seb?”**  
Seb smiled “Kimi?”  
** “thank you, thank you for bringing me home.” **  
Seb smiled “you’ve always had a home Kimi, you’ve never been alone nor will you ever be again. Here’s to new memories.”  
Kimi slid his hand into Seb’s feeling for the first time a deep sense of belonging and home, it seemed that contrary to what he had spent most of his life thinking he had always belonged, he had always been loved.  
He supposed that he owed Minttu for this one. He made a mental note to buy some chocolates for her as Sebastian towed him from the room a wicked smile on his face.


	19. there life was very good indeed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the last cahpet guys i may do a few extra oneshots though

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos to paradox_of_retaliation for the idea for this chapter and thank you to everyone who liked and commented to chapter im so glad you all liked this work  
> Also isa is the Finnish word for papa

Sebastian was curled up on one of the window seats watching as the sky grew darker. He had taken a rare day off from his royal duties, it wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy what he did but at the best of times it could be rather exhausting. He had decided however that when his father stepped down from the throne that he would not be ascending it, he had spoken to Valtteri about it and his brother while surprised at the revelation did not seem all too concerned about it. Sebastian had felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, he had told Kimi who had shrugged trying to look unconcerned either way but Seb knew that the last thing that Kimi would have wanted was to be thrust further into the public eye than he already was.  
Seb and Kimi had after several months of seeing each other under relative cover announced their relationship to the world, neither through the media nor any conventional means, but by kissing in the middle of the royal opera house. Sebastian’s mother had been absolutely livid.  
Sebastian and Kimi had married not long after and had gotten busy in filling Kimi’s childhood home with all the waifs and strays they could find. It had started when Kimi had brought home a dog he’d found wondering around in the woods, nursing it back to health then refusing to do anything other than adopt it.  
This had resulted in the couple only a year into their marriage having 6 rehomed dogs. It had not however stopped there; Seb had always wanted children and had been rather surprised to find that Kimi did also. A few months later they had adopted their first child, 3 more had followed in the years after and Kimi and Seb often had played emergency foster parents to children in dire circumstances. More often than not these children had ended up having semi-permanent places within the household, the butler had joked that the house would soon have fair claim to the name of orphanage.  
Kimi had apparently rather liked the idea, opening the doors to his old home officially. Seb and Kimi (with the help of others including Seb’s mother) in addition to having 3 of their own children played surrogate parent to around 20 more. Sebastian and indeed Kimi had never been so happy.

Pascal one of Seb and Kimi’s adopted children and the youngest, a small 8 year old with tufty black hair and bright eyes, was sat on the floor close to his father bothering one of the dogs, poking his ears and giggling when the poor dog kept attempting to swat him away. Sebastian looked back out of the window the sky had begun to threaten rain.  
Kimi though, the two of them had more than enough money to pay for people to do his old job, still insisted on tending to the grounds himself stating “why pay for someone to do something that I can easily do myself”. Sebastian had begrudgingly agreed to this but had insisted that his husband was to under no circumstances find himself stood out in the grounds when even the mildest amount of rainfall was around. Kimi as to his nature had of course argued about this, Sebastian peeved to say the least as he was only trying to protect his husband from getting sick again, had threatened his husband with divorce and suffice to say that the argument was won, in Sebastian’s favour.  
Since Kimi’s illness in the first few months of their acquaintance his health had been generally good, though both Sebastian and Kimi knew that vigilant care needed to be taken of it. In the winter months Kimi was prone to chest infections and Sebastian during those times fussed like a mother hen and wasn’t all too keen on letting his husband out of his sights for longer than 10 minutes. Despite this Sebastian had managed to show some discretion, he had not pointed out that Kimi had started to use his oxygen aides more often than not especially at night. However under Sebastian’s fussing and endless desire to take care of Kimi, he had not fallen seriously ill in all there 10 years of marriage.  
“Pascal?” Seb said his son looked up from the elderly dog to look up at his father questionably  
“Papa?” he asked  
Of all the children pascal had been the quickest to adapt to his new circumstances. Sebastian and Kimi had adopted him at 4 months. The others max and Daniel, had been adopted at ages 4 and 7, and had clung to each other like limpets for weeks before showing any signs of settling down.  
They had however, with Kimi and Sebastian’s; especially Kimi’s; patience began to enjoy their new home. Max had perked up once Kimi had begun to teach him sign language and often preferred to communicate in this manner. Max was very rarely to be found far from his Isa’s side and Daniel never far from max. Thus Kimi often had more than enough hands to help him manage the estate.  
“go and fetch your Isa and remind him what I said about divorce” said Sebastian with a small frown  
Pascal gave him an assessing look as if trying to figure out if his papa was serious about divorce but upon deciding that he was not he smiled and trotted out of the room the old dog that he had been bothering deciding to follow his young friend out of the room in search of the errant Kimi.  
Sebastian smiled he really did have it rather good indeed, a house filled with lost souls that had found a home. He watched as Kimi and there 3 children came into sight sprinting over the brow of the hill and towards the house trying to out run the rain. Daniel and Pascal running far ahead and Kimi and max following along behind, Max was clinging to his Isa’s hand pulling him along beside him, Kimi’s head thrown back in laughter a wide happy smile on his head.  
Sebastian felt his own smile grow wider at the sight; yes they had it very good indeed.


End file.
